The Battle of Dunbar
by witchinmoonlight
Summary: Season 3 Finale/Season 4 AU. What if William was never possessed by Xana? What if the other Lyoko Warriors were? Well, that's exactly what happens. In the aftermath of Lyoko's destruction, William Dunbar is the last Lyoko Warrior remaining and must fight Xana with the help of Jeremie. Why does he fight when the odds are against him? One reason; Yumi Ishimaya. (Full summary inside.)
1. It's All Over

Author's Notes:

-This is an AU of the Season 3 Finale, "Final Round". You could also call it an AU of Season 4.

-This fanfic will be formatted similar to Nights Out of Dreams and Discord and Divergence. However, unlike the other two stories where there were multiple first person narrators, the story is narrated entirely by William.

-Full summary: What if William Dunbar was never possessed by the Scyphozoa? What if William was never under Xana's control, but instead, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and Aelita were? Well, that's exactly what happens. In the aftermath of the destruction of Lyoko, William must find a way to keep up the fight against Xana now that's he's the last Lyoko Warrior remaining. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done. Between a terrible teacher, a very mean classmate, and the fact that trouble seems to follow him around, William has his work of surviving the 9th grade (and defeating Xana) cut out for him. It seems impossible actually. So why does he fight? For one reason; Yumi Ishimaya. Although his chances with her are slim, he desires to save her from Xana's grasp more than anything. Is his love for Yumi his greatest strength, the primary if not only factor that allows him to persevere through the toughest of times? Or will it become his greatest weakness, and become what could lead him to his downfall?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Let's get this story started!

The rain continued to fall on my face, getting harder and harder as time passed on. At first, the rain was soft as I began to get misty-eyed, but as I cried even more, the rain and wind got harder and harder. It seemed as if Mother Nature herself could feel my pain and was in perfect sync with my emotions. I looked at the grey sky and asked myself the hundredth time that day, _How could it have all gone so terribly wrong?_ I always believed that things happened for some reason either minor or major, but what just happened about 35 minutes ago had no good reason to happen at all. Ok, you're probably wondering what happened, why I'm so upset, and just who I am. Before I tell you my name, let me give you a fair warning. I'm not the person you think I am. If you knew my name, you might think I'm rude or evil. Even worse, you may think I'm a villain. But before you accuse me of anything, I'll tell you something right now. I'm not a hero, and I'm not a villain. I'm just... a lost cause. Don't say I didn't warn you.

My name is William Dunbar. I'm a 9th grader at Kadic Academy, and the newest recruit for the Lyoko Warriors. Sadly, in addition to being the newest warrior, I'm also the last one left. You could also say that Jeremie is a Lyoko Warrior, but he always runs the Supercomputer, and last I looked, he doesn't have a Lyoko Avatar nor has he ever been to Lyoko. I could be wrong, but I honestly didn't know. After being outside for over 30 minutes, I heard someone call my name.

Jeremie: William?! William!

It was Jeremie Belepois. You might know him, but in case you don't, I'll give you a brief description of him. He is 13 years old and an 8th grader at Kadic. He has blond hair and wears circular glasses. He wears a long blue shirt and light colored pants.

Jeremie: William, have you really been sitting out there in the rain for 30 minutes?

William: It wasn't raining at first. It just got harder and harder as time passed by.

Jeremie: You should come inside. You're gonna catch a cold in that weather!

William: Hey, I have a pretty good immune system. And besides, I haven't heard any thunder or seen any lightning yet. (a lightning bolt is seen a few miles away, thunder is heard)

Jeremie: You were saying?

William: Alright, alright, I'm coming in! (William runs into the factory)

Jeremie: I wish I had a warm towel to give to you, William. You must be freezing.

William: Hey, I've ran through much worse weather and felt even more cold than that. So what have you been doing for the last half-hour?

Jeremie: Trying to figure out how things went so terribly wrong and see if we can't find a way to fix it.

William: Any ideas, Einstein?

Jeremie: Sadly no. The Core of Lyoko has been destroyed, Lyoko's gone, and so are the other four Lyoko Warriors. Xana has guaranteed victory and there's nothing we can do to stop him...

I wanted to say some encouraging words to lift his spirit, but what the young genius didn't know was that on the inside, I was emotionally breaking down.

William: There's gotta be something we can do. This can't be over...

Jeremie: I wish I could be as optimistic as you are, William, but I just can't. Xana won and we lost...

I wished I could tell him how I truly felt about the situation we were in. He knew I was sad, but he didn't know that I was crying, or losing hope for a happy ending.

William: With the other warriors under his control, Xana will be able to take over the world.

Jeremie: I'm not even sure if the others are even alive anymore. All four of them, and Franz Hopper, who we've been trying to save for a while... They could be dead by now.

It felt like a needle stabbed me in the heart. Yumi, as well as the other Lyoko warriors, dead? No, it couldn't be...

William: Are you sure they're dead?

Jeremie: No, I'm not sure, and I really hope they're not dead, because if they are, it's all over. I don't entirely know what Xana's plans are, but whatever they are, he can do them now. (Jeremie looks at his watch) Man, it's late. 6:30pm. (he gets up off the ground)

William: Where are you going?

Jeremie: Back to Kadic to think this whole thing over. If you were smart, you'd get back there quickly. The break in the weather may not last long. (he gets up and leaves)

As Jeremie went down the secret passage way from Kadic to the Factory, I looked at the floor below me. I still couldn't believe this. Aelita Stones (or should I say Hopper?), Odd Della Robia, Ulrich Stern and worst of all, Yumi Ishimaya, kidnapped by some giant jellyfish thingy. The Scyphozoa? Yeah, that sounds right. I wasn't there at the time, but Jeremie told me how they were possessed by Xana through the Scyphozoa. The storm started up again, and I wanted to tell myself that it was all over. I was supposed to be the optimist in dark times, the honest guy, and the guy who has a shoulder to cry on, but this time, everything's reversed. I'm the guy who needs a shoulder to cry on. _I'm supposed to be strong._ I thought to myself. But instead I feel so weak.

(William walks onto the bridge, it is raining heavily, he looks at the right side of the river)

William: Yumi.. I'm.. I'm sorry. (a tear escapes from his eyes, falling off his face and into the river below)

I wanted to say it was all over, but as I left the Factory for Kadic, something told me that this was far from over. In fact, it was just beginning...


	2. Far From Over

I saw myself in Sector 5, also called Carthage, and Yumi was falling from the sky. I didn't know what was going on, but I had to save her!

William: Yumi! Super Sprint! (he uses Super Sprint, leaving a purple trail behind him as he runs to catch Yumi in his arms, a white light engulfs the area, the scene switches to a big mansion in a suburban area, lightning cracks and thunder is heard, it begins to rain, a young boy is seen)

I knew the boy too well. He was 10 years old, had brown eyes, and black, somewhat spiky hair. Standing at the open door was a 37 year old man with red hair, green eyes and a bulky body. He was very mad with the young boy, who was sad and scared out of his wits.

Boy: Look, you gotta believe me!

Man: It was all your fault and because of it, you will be cursed. Just you wait.

Boy: But it wasn't... (he runs away crying, a shadow is seen behind him)

Voice(off-screen): Years from now, you'll face the darkness from above, and you will lose your one true love! (the young boy trips, a shadow with the symbol of Xana appears, surrounding the boy)

Boy: No, please, leave me alone! AHH! (William screams, waking up, he breathes heavily)

William: It was just a dream... (he lies back on the bed) But why did it feel so real?

I looked at the bed on the other side of the room and noticed my roommate wasn't here. It was 4:30 in the morning. I should of gone back to sleep, but because I woke up so early, I got dressed and continued working on the pile of homework that I never finished. I got it done and got ready for the day. Up until gym class that day, I'd say being up early was a good idea. Jim Morales, sometimes called Jimbo, was the PE teacher at Kadic Academy. I closed my eyes and thought about what would of happened if the dream about Yumi hadn't switched to the storm scene.

(William catches Yumi in his arms)

Yumi: Will.. William? Is that you?

William: Yes Yumi, it's me, William. (he sets her feet on the ground, she looks into his eyes)

Yumi: William.. You're my hero... (she leans in to kiss him, William does the same)

Jim (voice): Dunbar... Dunbar... (the vision ends) Dunbar! (he screams, falling backwards on the bleachers, he rises his arm)

William: Present! (his arm falls down)

Jim: William, what have I told you about staring off into space? (William gets up)

William: That it distracts me and that I shouldn't be doing it.

Jim: Good. At least you pay attention. Most of the time anyway... Fiquet!

Ok, I'm going to give you some introductions to some students in my class. First, we have Anais Fiquet, a blond-haired girl who's very nice to everyone. Even if you were the biggest jerk on the planet, she'd still be friendly with you. On to Priscilla Blaise, a young girl with a big attitude. She's considered attractive to some young men, but I wasn't too impressed. Next we have Emmanuel Maillard, a guy who has a similar appearance to me, but his black hair is in a long ponytail, and he always wears a necklace. Then we have Christophe M'Bala, a student who has African ancestry and a deep love of music. He likes to listen to music a lot, but he's easily distracted and usually scolded because of it.

And last but not least, there's Maithas Burrel. He's arguably the smartest 9th grader in Kadic, but he's all brains and no brawn. He always carries pepper spray on him. Why? I have no idea. Anyways, after the 1st group did their work and we recorded their times, the 2nd group of students, which meant me as well as others, had to run a mile around the track. I got distracted again, and took off nearly-sprinting, but I remind myself to keep an even, steady pace. We were being tested on endurance, not speed. Being rather slow I soon found that I was the only one on the track.

Emmanuel: Come on, William! You've got one more lap to go!

I felt like I was on top of the world. I could climb any mountain and tear any wall down, but about half way through my final lap, my head began to spin and I heard someone scream. I saw the Lyoko Warriors in a small room that seemed to be... in the middle nowhere. An area with a blueish-black sky while the ground looked like that of the Factory, except that it was were two dark blue walls and a black ceiling. Aelita, Odd and Ulrich were under Xana's control, and Yumi... Poor Yumi was chained up and helpless.

(Yumi is chained up to a wall in a room, Aelita, Odd and Ulrich stand behind Xana)

I saw that Xana appeared as a black-haired teenager who wore a black cloak, concealing his clothes underneath his cloak. His black eyes seemed to radiate with fury and evilness.

Xana: Give it up, Yumi. You're the last Lyoko Warrior who has yet to fall under my control.

Yumi: You'll never win, Xana, because I'm not the last one left.

Xana: What? What do you mean?

Xana-Ulrich: She's right. There's a new recruit for the Lyoko Warriors named William Dunbar. Never liked that Casanova...

Xana: A new recruit? (he laughs) A rookie like him couldn't hope to stop me. It's over Yumi! (he fires red and black lightning bolts from his hands)

Yumi: William, help! (the vision ends, back to William on the track)

William (muttering): No... Yumi... (he trips) Ahhh! (he lands, hurting his ankle, only feet away from the finish line, Anais and Maithas run over to him)

Anais: Sweetie, are you ok?

Maithas: Is anything broken? (William moans as Jim walks over to him)

Jim: Dunbar, what happened?! You were doing just fine until the last lap, then you clutched your head in pain, ran for a while and then you tripped and fell. What happened?

William: I..I..I'm not..quite sure. (he stands up) Ow! Darn it! I think I twisted my ankle.

Jim: You need someone to walk you down to the Infirmary?

William: I'll be fine.

I left in pain, sorrow and humiliation. On the way out, I heard Priscilla tease me, saying if Yumi was here,she'd think that I'm a fool. Well, William, great day. I didn't know how long this would last, but I knew one thing was certain; the trouble was far from over.


	3. Meeting in the Infirmary

After I left gym class, I sent a text to Jeremie, asking him if he could meet me at the Infirmary. I continued walking down there, hoping that he would respond, but he didn't. For the Lyoko Warriors, this was their primary ticket to get out of class and stop Xana. They'd say they need to go to the Infirmary, but in reality, they would go to the Factory instead. This time, however, the situation was legit. The school nurse, Dorothy Yolanda Perraudin was always nice to her patients. She's usually referred to by her middle name.

Yolanda: Hello William. What's the matter today?

William: While running around the track, I sprained and/or twisted my ankle.

Yolanda: Take a seat on one of those beds over there. (he does so) Were your shoes untied when you tripped?

William: No, they weren't. To be honest, I'm not sure what happened.

Yolanda: Were you running around the track for gym class?

William: Yeah, I was.

Yolanda: Did you get too distracted?

I was a little hesitant to answer at first because I wanted to tell Jeremie about my vision, but I answered her question honestly.

(Yolanda gives William an ice pack and a white cloth, he puts it on his right ankle)

Yolanda: The ice will help to alleviate the pain from your ankle. You'll need to apply ice to it a few times a day for the rest of today, and Jim won't force you to run tomorrow.

William: He won't. We're doing weight-lifting tomorrow. (Jeremie coughs, he is seen on the opposite side of the room, two beds away from William)

Yolanda: Have you been taking your medicine Jeremie?

Jeremie: Yes, I have. (he coughs)

William: How did you get so sick?

Jeremie: To be honest, I'm not quite sure.

Yolanda: I have some paperwork I need to do. If either of you need me, just holler. (she leaves)

William: So, you're actually sick?

Jeremie: Didn't you get my message?

William: No, I didn't. Anyway, I have news to tell you.

He listened closely as I recalled my vision during gym class.

Jeremie: Wow.. William, don't you realize what this means? Even though they're under Xana's control, the others are still alive! We can still save them from Xana's grasp! (he coughs)

William: But what about Lyoko? With Lyoko destroyed, how will we bring them back into the real world?

Jeremie: I have good news, my friend. (he coughs) Franz Hopper has managed to evade Xana's traps and was able to send me an e-mail on how to recreate Lyoko.

William: Really? That's great!

Jeremie: The sad thing is, it could take a... (he sneezes) a week, maybe even longer to do it.

William(sigh): No one said saving four warriors from Xana would be easy.

Eventually, my ankle healed up enough to walk without pain, but I tried to go easy on it for awhile. It was towards the end of the school day, so I decided to leave for my dorm.

William: Good luck in your task, Jeremie. You'll need it. (he leaves the Infirmary)

My ankle was in pain after I tripped only feet from the finish line, but compared to the emotional agony I felt, the sprained, twisted ankle was nothing. I then wondered what I was going to do about the current situation, because I knew one thing was certain; If Yumi was under Xana's control, I would eventually have to fight her. But how can I? The thought of fighting her seemed unbearable. Of course I didn't want to fight the others either, but that was a different matter. I got back to my room and was about to start on my homework, but I starting seeing visions again...

(William sees the Forest Sector being engulfed in white light, he sees Xana-Aelita being restrained by Ulrich, she gets free, enters the Way Tower and enters Code: Xana, the Way Tower vanishes and Aelita is shown running as the Desert Sector disappears, he sees Aelita entering Code: Xana in a Way Tower in the Polar Region, Megatanks start falling into the Digital Sea as the Ice Sector crumbles, Ulrich, Odd and Aelita devirtualize each other, the scene switches to Aelita being possessed by the Scyphozoa in the Mountain Sector, the Mountain region vanishes, Yumi and Aelita devirtualize before they fall into the Digital Sea, the visions end, William shakes his head)

William: Those visions... the other sectors of Lyoko... No wonder they wanted me to join the group... Xana was winning. And now he's taken total victory. (William grabs a journal, a sharpie and a pencil)

I grabbed the blank journal and wrote on the red cover with the black sharpie, _Book of Visions_ , then I began to write about all the visions that entered my mind. After I finished writing, I put the writing utensils on my desk and put the journal under my pillows. Now to start today's homework...

William(sigh): No one ever said that this would be easy.


	4. Another Terrible Day

November 10th, 2006. Just two days ago, my entire world was turned around. Now that Yumi and the other warriors were gone, things were very different. Jeremie was sick, working on recreating Lyoko while doing all his homework, and I was stuck in school as if it was a normal day. Before I begin, I should tell you that at Kadic, I have the same group of students all day, from first class to seventh class. First up was English Literature, I always enjoyed this class. Unlike most students, I actually liked to write poems, which is what we were doing today. Our teacher, asked for any volunteers to read their poem aloud to the class. After I read my poem, the teacher, as well some of the other students, were in shock.

Mr. Bible: Well crafted and polished. Well done, Dunbar. Where did you come up with these ideas?

William: I'm not quite sure to be honest. They just... come to my mind.

Priscilla: Are you sure it isn't because Yumi got sick and disappeared? (the bell rings, the students begin to pack up and leave the room)

Mr. Bible: Have a good day, students! Don't forget about your projects!

Next was advanced algebra, European History and the next class I'll show you is Chemistry. I've never liked this class. Too many difficult equations... And now we had a new teacher who would be taking Mrs. Campbell's place temporarily.

Anais (muttering): Are you sure William likes her?

Priscilla (muttering): I'm certain. William's lost his mind since Yumi disappeared.

William: You do realize I can hear you jumping to conclusions back there, right? So knock it off.

Mrs. Fritz: William, repeat what I just said. (William hangs his head in shame) Pay attention, young man. It would be a shame to tell that you were a rebel while she was away. (William sighs)

Next came computer programming, then gym and finally art. As our teacher scolded Christophe for having his ear-buds out, I started drawing in my sketchbook and after a few minutes, I made a complete yet accurate sketch of someone in my art class.

Mrs. Davis: Your homework for tonight is... (she looks at William) William, what are you doing? (she picks up his sketchbook) You're supposed to be paying attention to.. Oh my gosh...

William: Am I in trouble?

Mrs. Davis: No.. it's just. This sketch.. it looks so accurate, so detailed. Nicely done. Looks like you've already done tonight's homework without even knowing what it is.

Maithas: What exactly is tonight's homework?

Mrs. Davis: To create a full body sketch of one of the students in this class, and William has done just that.

Anais: What was his sketch?

Mrs. Davis: I'd tell you but I don't think he'd want me to.

Priscilla: Another sketch of Yumi, I presume?

William: Would you knock it off with those conclusions about me and Yumi? You've been teasing me about it since first class this morning, and I'm getting sick of it!

Priscilla: Face it William! Ever since your crush Yumi disappeared you've been down in the dumps!

Christophe: Yo Priscilla, you really should stop jumping to conclusions and leave William alone. He's had a rough week!

William: Thank you, Christophe, but I don't think she'll listen.

Priscilla: To Christophe, shut up. And to William, you know I'm right! (the bell rings, students begin to leave the room)

William: Finally, the end of another terrible day.

I was more willing to take six hours of detention then admit it to her, but she was right. The sketch I created was of the girl I missed and loved so much. Even worse, she knew who it was too. Yumi Ishimaya, one of the lost Lyoko Warriors. Before she went missing, I never knew the level of insanity that I got to today, or the emotional agony I feel within. At least she's alive... but under Xana's control sadly. As I trudged back to my dorm room, I was hoping I could be left alone to my sorrows, but I found someone in my room.

Sammy: William, are you ok? William?

It was Samuel Andrews, called Sammy or Sam by his friends. He's a 14-year old 9th grader with red hair, grey eyes and pale skin, but surprisingly, he lacks freckles. He commonly wore jeans and a red jersey alongside black tennis shoes. He moved to Kadic Academy during the 8th grade, and we've been best friends ever since.

William: Sammy? Is that you? (he hugs Sammy, who hugs him back, then backs away) Where have you been?

Sammy: My paternal grandfather died two nights ago, so I was excused from classes for two days, but something tells me that my absence isn't the main cause of your sorrow.

William: Only part of it. There's a plethora of factors involved in my misery and woe.

Sammy: Then tell me my friend, what has happened to you? (they sit down on their respective beds)

William: It's a long story, Sammy. I hope you're listening...


	5. The Book of Visions

Sammy listened as I told him what happened over the last two days and nights. Yumi and her friends losing their minds, Jim being harsh after I tripped in gym class, Mrs. Campbell being forced into an early maternity leave, and how Priscilla's been teasing me about my crush on Yumi.

Sammy: Man, I thought I had it rough... But why are you upset about Mrs. Campbell leaving? You knew it would happen eventually. Who is taking her place?

William: Mrs. Fritz, a 45 year old woman who seems to hate me. She took Mrs. Campbell's place yesterday actually. Two nights after Yumi disappeared. And don't you remember that Mrs. Campbell was supposed to leave on December 7th? Because she left earlier, Mrs. Fritz took her place instead of that really nice teacher we were supposed to get!

Sammy: How long is Mrs. Campbell supposed to be on her maternity leave?

William: Eight to ten weeks, maybe even longer. I don't think I'll last one full week.

Sammy: Come on, William. Where's the optimist I know?

He didn't know my optimism was fading. Then again, no one did.

(a knock is heard on their door)

Jim (off-screen): Open up! (Sammy gets the door)

Sammy: Is something wrong, sir?

Jim: It's time for your dorm inspection. Something tells me you both forgot.

Sammy/William: I was at a funeral!/ I've had a rough week!

Jim: Excuses. Very common of young teenage boys. You two are lazy, and to punish you, I'm going to make sure you clean this place up. Neither of you are leaving this room until you're done.

Sammy/William: Oi vey...

We tried to clean up this room, which was essentially a dumpster. Clothes on the floor, papers everywhere, our beds were messy (or not made) and a whole bunch of other stuff was on the floor. We made our beds (or for Sammy, as his bed was a futon, he turned it back into a couch), then we proceeded to clean the floor. I was worried that Jim or Sammy would notice the journal that was my Book of Visions. Luckily, I managed to transfer it from my bed to my drawer without anyone's notice.

Sammy: Hey William, where do you want this picture of you and Yumi?

William: On my nightstand, next to the lamp. (William's phone vibrates) Oh boy... Who could it be at this hour? (he answers it) Hello?

Jeremie (on phone): Hey William. Are you busy?

William: Uh, kinda. (he continues to pick up dirty laundry) Why do you ask?

Jeremie (on phone): I have good news. I managed to recreate Lyoko.

William: Really? That's great! I thought you said it would take several days though.

Jeremie (on phone): Apparently, I wasn't very specific. So far, I've only managed to recreate Sector 5. It will take more time to finish the other sectors.

William: Ok then. How long for the other regions?

Jeremie (on phone): There's four regions left and it took about two days to recreate Carthage, so.. A week? Roughly?

William: Well, it's a good start. Still a lot more territory to cover though.

Jim: Dunbar, who are you talking to?

Jeremie (on phone): William, what's going on?

William: You called while me and Sammy are being forced to clean our room. Jim won't let us leave until it's done. Sam, where do you want your paintbrushes?

Sammy: Put them on my desk next to my chemistry book. (he does so)

William: Got any other news to report?

Jeremie (on phone): Don't think so.

William: In that case, can I talk to you later? I don't think Jim wants me being distracted anymore. I'll see you later. (he hangs up)

We eventually finished cleaning up our room, and Jim left. So did Sammy, but I decided to stay in my room for a while longer. I looked at the picture of me and Yumi holding hands and thought about how long ago it was. In this picture, we were in my dorm room and I asked Milly and Tamiya to take a picture of us. It was a nice day in spring during our 8th grade year. Long before anything became complicated for me...

Tamiya: It's too bad we can't use this to make a good story.

Milly: Don't worry, Tamiya, I'm sure we'll think of something. That's it. (she zooms out the camera on them) Smile!

For some reason, I softly took Yumi's hand and intertwined it with my own. I had no idea if she noticed that, for a brief moment, I held her hand. Milly took the photo and allowed me to keep it. Just then, I got yet another vision...

(William sees himself, Ulrich and Odd in the Factory, William places the metal piece between the conductors, shorting it out and diffusing the bomb with seven seconds to spare)

William: Huh? (the bomb beeps, then stops) Yeah!

Ulrich: Jeremie, William defused the detonator. We're saved. (the vision ends, William grabs The Book of Visions and a pencil)

William: Hold on... Something doesn't make sense... If I saved the Factory from blowing up, why didn't they let me join the group? Hmm...

With each vision, I got answers to some questions and formed new ones. I didn't know how or why these visions were occurring, but they seemed to help me a lot. For the most part. I wrote down the new vision in my book and put it in it's secret place. I didn't know how or why the visions occurred, but this was another secret I had to keep.


	6. Interrogation

A week had passed since Yumi and the others disappeared. I was beginning to lose my mind. Mrs. Fritz's attitude towards me hadn't changed much. If anything, it's gotten worse. Now she deems me the professional class rebel. She probably hates my guts.

(the bell rings, the students begin to leave)

Mrs. Fritz: Have a good day, students! See you tomorrow! (William tries to leave the room) Except for you, Dunbar. I'd like to see you in my office, right now.

I really wanted to get out of here, but something told me I'd regret if I ran off. So I sat down in her office. The hardwood stool felt uncomfortable, but it could have been worse.

William: Mrs. Fritz, is something wrong?

Mrs. Fritz: I want to talk to you. According to what I was told about you from Mrs. Campbell, she said that you're a bright, optimistic student who hardly ever gets into trouble, and gets an average grade in this class. Progress reports are going to be handed out soon, and yours doesn't look very good. Is there any reason why this could be true?

William: I... I don't know. Maybe I'm just overwhelmed by this class.

Mrs. Fritz: Really? I've heard strange noises in your room at night. What time did you wake up this morning?

William: Five o'clock. Why do you ask?

Mrs. Fritz: Five? That's an unusual hour. School doesn't start until eight in the morning. Most students are up by seven, maybe 6:30 at the earliest. What woke you up so early?

 _Oh, boy.._ I thought to myself. She must be onto me. What do I tell her? I couldn't tell her about my nightmares or strange dreams with Yumi in them.

William: Well... I.. um.. (Mr. Delmas walks in)

Mr. Delmas: William Dunbar? What are you doing here?

Mrs. Fritz: I was calling him into my office to speak with him privately during my spare time.

William: She seems to say that I'm a bad student and wants an explanation for my strange behavior.

Mrs. Fritz: I never said that!

William: But you implied it!

Mr. Delmas: William, how has been treating you?

I gave an accurate, yet long story of how treated me over the last several days.

Mr. Delmas: Mrs. Fritz, you are here to temporarily fill in for Mrs. Campbell while she cares for her firstborn son, not to torture her students. Sure William may not be the best student, but this does not mean you have the right to punish him severely by threatening to suspend him. That is my job. William Dunbar, you are dismissed. Where are you supposed to be right now?

William: Computer Programming with Mr. Herman.

Mr. Delmas: Here's a pass. I suggest you get down there quickly. You can thank me later. (William leaves, walking very quickly)

I was very glad to be saved from farther interrogation, but I also had a feeling that next time, I wouldn't be so lucky. I went through the rest of my classes, and tried hard to pay attention in Computer Programming, but I kept thinking about the history of Lyoko and the importance of Franz Hopper, whom, according to Jeremie, was Aelita's father, and the creator of Xana. I wondered if any of that information could help us in the situation we were in, but my thoughts were disrupted yet again by my teacher, Mr. Herman.

Mr. Herman: William Dunbar!

William: Huh? Oh, not again...

Mr. Herman: William, how are you ever going to get a good grade if you staring off into space?

William: I have no idea.

Mr. Herman: On that getting-to-know-you sheet at the beginning of the year, didn't you tell me that you wanted straight A's on your report card?

William: I did say that. Look, a lot of things have happened recently... (Mrs. Fritz enters the room)

Mrs. Fritz: Finally. It took me forever to find this place..

Mr. Herman: Mrs. Fritz, don't you have a chemistry class to teach for Mrs. Campbell?

Mrs. Fritz: This is my free time, Mr. Herman, and I was rudely interrupted while I was talking to Mr. Dunbar. You, (she points to William) you're coming with me.

William: No. I'm not coming with you.

Mrs. Fritz: No? What do you mean no? (William stands up, pointing at Mrs. Fritz)

William: You were interrogating me back there. You have no right to butt into my private life, which is exactly what you're doing! If you keep doing that, I'm leaving your class!

Mathias: Uh, William, I hate to burst your bubble, but you can't transfer to another chemistry class at this time of year. Class transfers ended about three weeks ago.

Priscilla: In case you forgot the simple fact, advanced chemistry...

William: Is a required class... I know, I know... (to Mrs. Fritz) Look, you have no right to interrogate me. So I'm not leaving.

Mr. Herman (to Mrs. Fritz): Get out, you have no reason to be here. (Mrs. Fritz growls as she heads for the door, she leaves, William returns to his seat)

William: I swear that woman is out to get me...

Anais: William, I'm sure that's not the case. I think you're overthinking this.

William: I think that you're not thinking enough about this.

Mr. Herman: Alright, that's enough chitter-chatter! Back to our lesson...

It was bad enough that Mrs. Fritz took Mrs. Campbell's place, but now the terrible teacher was interrogating me. And I hated interrogation... No one seemed to understand the situation I was in, not even my best friend, Sammy Andrews.


	7. Operation:Save Yumi

It had been a long day, with Mrs. Fritz trying to interrogate me as well as everything else. I tried to look on the bright side. Jeremie had finally recreated the entirety of Lyoko. Now that Lyoko had been restored, soon would begin the next challenge. Jeremie told me that he had accidentally created a computer program where if a Lyoko warrior was devirtualized, he or she would be free from Xana's control. However, since Jeremie fell asleep on the keyboard, he doesn't entirely know how he finished the program, and we only had one chance to use it. Tomorrow, Jeremie would send me to Lyoko to devirtualize Aelita. He couldn't do it today because he got a two to four hour detention session. How, I have no idea. I couldn't wait that long. I wanted to fight Xana and get Yumi back... But if Jeremie knew that, he'd say I'm selfish. After school, I went back to my dorm. As soon as I opened the door, I gasped in terror.

William: Sammy, what are you doing? (he puts the journal down)

Sammy: I... I was looking for a blank journal for one of my classes... When I saw it was titled, _Book of Visions_ , I couldn't help but read it. (William frowns) I wasn't supposed to read it, was I?

William: How much did you read?

Sammy: All of it. William, what's going on? And who's Xana?

William: Oh boy... It's a long story.

I wasn't sure how to get out this, so instead of lying, I told him the truth. Everything, including the kitchen sink (aka-Jeremie's delayed plan.) I knew I wasn't supposed to tell him, but what else was I supposed to do? After taking about this for about an hour, Sammy's interested face turned into a smile. He had a plan...

Sammy: Ya know... Ok, I don't tell many people this, but, I know a lot about computers. Maybe I can help you get Yumi back before Jeremie gets out of detention.

William: You'd.. you'd really help me...?

Sammy: Of course. I don't know why Jeremie wants Aelita back first, but you need Yumi back. Not only do you love her, you've been losing your mind ever since she was possessed by Xana.

William: You do have a point... Let's do it. Do you have a skateboard?

Sammy: Sure. Why?

We skated-boarded down to the Factory and used the Supercomputer to make Sammy immune to the return to the past program. Only after that, I realized a return to the past could have been used to erase his memory. Too late to turn back now. Shortly afterwards, Sammy pin-pointed Yumi's location in the Ice Sector.

Sammy: Operation:Save Yumi has begun. Get to the scanners. (William goes down the elevator and gets into the scanner) Transfer William. Scanner William. Virtualization!

I felt myself fall apart and form again. It's been quite a while since I was virtualized. On my first and only mission. Which failed. But this time, I was prepared for whatever Xana threw at me.

(William virtualizes and lands on the ground, holding his sword)

William: Looks like this area is deserted. Better start walking.

I ambled around the Polar Region with caution. Any of the corrupted warriors could approach me at any time. Surprisingly, I couldn't find any of them.

William: Something's wrong. It's quiet... Too quiet... (he barely dodges a fan, he turns around and sees Xana-Yumi) Y-Yumi?

I saw Yumi, but compared to her first form, she looked very different. Now she was wearing ninja armor bands on her arms and a black and purple outfit. Her hair lacked a small top ponytail and looked like how it normally did on Earth. I saw the a Xana symbol on both her forehead and a purple one on her suit. Even her fans were different. The ribs (or wooden part) were now a dark blue, the majority of the fans were black, and the floral design was purple. They were beautiful yet deadly, just like Yumi was now that she was under Xana's control.

Xana-Yumi: Aw, what's wrong, William? I thought you'd be glad to see me.

William: Not like this. I don't want to fight you. Just let me devirtualize you and we can be together.

Xana-Yumi: Holding on to false hopes and broken dreams? Wake up fool! I work for Xana now and he gave me one command; to destroy you! (she throws her fans at William, he drops his sword and barely dodges them, Xana-Yumi catches her fans, a katana is thrown at William, he barely dodges it, Xana-Ulrich is seen using Super Sprint and retrieving his sword)

Xana-Ulrich looked like a very formidable foe. His katana glowed red, and oh dang, he now had two of em! His suit looked very different, and it was black and red. For the first time, I was afraid to provoke him.

(Xana-Yumi grabs William's sword using her telekinesis, the sword is surrounded by purple energy)

Xana-Yumi: Keep away! (she levitates the sword into Ulrich's hands, who stabs it into the ground, William runs to get it but Xana-Yumi trips him with her telekinesis)

William: Ok, this may not be as easy as I thought. (Xana-Yumi throws her fans at him, William barely dodges and gets up) I stand corrected. This won't be easy. (Xana-Aelita flies onto the Ice Sector ground and shoots a red energy field at William, he barely dodges)

Aelita had turned from a friendly elf to an evil angel. Her wings were black and her new outfit had two shades of purple; violet and royal. Her sleeves were red, like her new energy fields. Soon Xana-Odd arrived. Of all the Lyoko Warriors, he seemed to have changed the least. His cat suit was modified slightly, and it was now black. He still had his gravity defying hair and his cat ears were dark purple. He had the symbol of Xana embedded in his outfit. I was in trouble, and I knew it. The Xana-ifed Warriors were back, and stronger than ever.

Xana-Odd: Well, well, well, what do we have here?

Xana-Ulrich: It's just that no good Cassanova.

Xana-Aelita: I thought we got rid of him.

Xana-Yumi: Well, he's back. Let's give him a warm welcome. (she throws both of her fans at William)


	8. Failure

This was not going as well I hoped it would. The Xana Warriors were trying to mess with my head, and sadly, it was working.

Jeremie (off-screen): William, what's going on? William?!

William: Jeremie? (he barely dodges Xana-Yumi's fans)

Jeremie (off-screen): What is going on? Why is there a stranger running the Supercomputer? And where...

William: Jeremie, stop! You're asking me too many questions at once! (he dodges Xana-Odd's laser arrows) I need to focus, so don't interrogate me!

Jeremie (off-screen): William, what are you planning on doing?! William! (he groans) When you get devirtualized, you are in so much trouble!

William: Who says I'll be devirtualized? (Xana-Ulrich slices through William with his katana, he begins to devirtualize) No!

I felt hurt, both physically and emotionally as I was devirtualized and reappeared in the scanners. I was told to come up to the lab, and Jeremie was extremely mad.

Jeremie: I can't believe this! Not only did you disobey my orders, you also brought a stranger to the Factory!

William: He's not a stranger, he's a student at Kadic. He could help us in our mission to stop Xana! Sammy's smarter than he looks.

Jeremie: This young man... Sammy, you call him... He has hindered our progress. I can't even trust you William. (he walks up to the keyboard)

William: Jeremie, wait... Sammy is... (Jeremie presses the button)

Jeremie: Return to the past now! (a bright light engulfs the room, William and Jeremie are outside Kadic in the park at sunset) William, why did you go against orders?!

William: I... I just wanted to save Yumi...

Jeremie: You don't get it, do you? Out of the four warriors Xana has under his control, Aelita is the most valuable to him.

William: And why is that?

Jeremie: Just forget it. You wouldn't understand.

William: Jeremie, please, tell me!

Jeremie: You don't understand anything, you rebel without a cause! Until further notice, you're banned from the Lyoko Warriors!

William: What? You can't do that! Who will fight the Xana controlled Warriors?

Jeremie: I'll fight them.

William: You'll never be able to survive on your own!

Jeremie: Watch me. (he walks away, then stops briefly) Oh, and if you tell anyone else about the Lyoko Warriors, I'll make your life miserable. (he walks into the Dormitory building)

Sammy (off-screen): Is he gone? (he comes out from behind the trees) William, I still remember everything. Why didn't you tell him that?

William: If he knew that, he'd probably ban me for life. I've failed him enough already.

Sammy: William, I think you're...

William: Just leave me alone... (he walks away) I don't feel like talking to anyone right now...

I walked to the nearest deserted bench, closed my eyes and began to sob into my arms. I felt awful in more ways than one. Every time I went to Lyoko, I failed my mission. I couldn't save any of the Lyoko Warriors from Xana's grasp. I failed to stop them from destroying the Core of Lyoko. I failed to get a passing grade on my most recent chemistry exam. I failed to finish my mile run around Kadic's outdoor track. I was a failure... A bitter failure... I wanted to be alone so I could cry my heart out. No one could see that I was losing hope. Just then, I saw another vision...

(Yumi loses her grip in the Ice Sector and begins to fall, but Ulrich grabs her hand)

Ulrich: Happy to see me?

Yumi: I sure am.

Ulrich: Move it, Jeremie! I can't hold it for long.

Jeremie (off-screen): I'm doing all I can!

Ulrich: So, Yumi, what do you think of my poem for Sissi?

Yumi: Ulrich, this is really not the time...

Ulrich: Because, in fact, I actually wrote it for you. (she smiles at him, the scene switches to outside the science building, where Odd, William and Yumi are)

Odd: Well, I gotta get to music class with the others.

William: Lucky you. We got chemistry.

Odd: Huh? Usual, here's the principal...

Yumi: Good morning, Mr. Delmas. We were just on our way to class. (he grabs Yumi and Odd) Hey, that hurts! (William follows Mr. Delmas)

William: What's the matter with you, sir? You can't treat students that way! Wait, what are you doing?! (William is thrown into the science building)

I remembered me telling myself to get up, even though I was aching all over. I didn't know it at the time, but Mr. Delmas was possessed by Xana.

(William limps through Kadic grounds, seeing Mr. Delmas put Yumi and Odd in the car)

William: Hey stop! (Mr. Delmas drives away as William gets to the gate) Hey, Yumi!

Yumi: William! (the car disappears from sight, William sighs in lament, the vision ends)

William: Why do I even continue trying? Maybe I should just give up before I screw anything else up... (he opens his eyes and sees its dark) Oh boy, what time is it?

I pulled out my cell phone and checked the time. It was 9:55pm. I had been out here crying for hours, and yet no one found me. At the same time however, I didn't really want to be found. It seemed like no matter how hard I tried, I was always a failure... I wanted to give up that night. Eventually, I cried until I closed my eyes, but before I did, I heard someone call my name. Sadly, at the time, I had no idea who it was.


	9. Link to the Past

(William sees himself in the Ice Sector, he sees Yumi falling from the sky, he gets hit by a laser from a Tarantula, he uses his sword to release an energy wave which destroys two of them, he dodges lasers from Hornets as he runs, he slices through Kankrelats, he throws his sword at a Krab, he catches Yumi in his arms before he wakes up, he realizes he's in his bed in his dorm)

William: What the? How did I get here?

Sammy: I don't know. I thought you came here after crying your heart out.

William: No, I remember falling asleep on a bench on Kadic grounds. Who would have brought me here and why?

Sammy: I have no idea. (William grabs the _Book of Visions_ , his pencil and begins writing)

After adding the torturing sights from last night into the _Book of Visions_ , I saw Jeremie, but when he saw me, he simply left without saying a word. I knew why. Jeremie was still furious because I tried to save Yumi instead of Aelita. That and I showed Sammy the Factory and told him everything. I had been kicked out of the Lyoko Warriors until further notice from Einstein. I felt awful. I felt like a failure... It felt like letting me into the Lyoko Warriors was a mistake. Me and Sammy walked to chemistry class, talking about how Operation:Save Yumi failed miserably.

Sammy: Come on William. Cheer up. I'm sure he'll let you back in.

William: He will, but who knows when that will be? Besides, he doesn't even know that you remember everything. I broke the rules and I still lost... He'll never forgive me.

Sammy: Maybe you're trying to hard. It seems like you're trying to fight the universe. (they enter Mrs. Campbell's room) You shouldn't fight the universe, or your friends.

William: What choice do I have? It feels like the world is against me. (the bell rings)

Mrs. Fritz: Good afternoon, students. Today's lecture notes will be over chemical reactions. Get out your pens, pencils or whatever you use to take notes. (they get out notebooks and pencils)

Like most students, I hand-wrote the notes on the PowerPoint presentation. That is, until a series of visions entered my brain.

(William sees a younger Aelita opening up a present, he sees her holding Mister Puck, and hugging Anthea, he then sees her father, Franz Hopper and Aelita in the scanners, they virtualize into the Forest Sector)

Everything was coming to me. Aelita's mother was named Anthea Schaffer, and her father is Waldo Franz Schaffer, but he was known as Franz Hopper. Ten years before Jeremie found the Supercomputer in the Factory, Franz Hopper took Aelita to Lyoko in an attempt to protect her from some weird men in black. Then the scene switched...

(he sees Aelita being virtualized onto Earth, they try to shut the supercomputer down, but Aelita faints and they start it back up, he then sees Aelita deactivating a tower, he then sees the Scyphozoa draining Aelita's memory until it reaches zero then lets her go, she falls to the floor)

Jeremie: Aelita... (he begins crying, the Sectors crumble as Lyoko begins to shut down, a Way Tower in the Ice Sector turns red, followed by one in the Forest Sector, then one in the Mountain Sector, and finally one in the Desert Sector)

Yumi: What, what's going on?

Jeremie: X... Xana got what he wants. He has the Keys to Lyoko. He'll be able to get out of the Supercomputer. (a black tornado whirlwind and lightning storm forms as Xana escapes from the supercomputer, turning into his teenager form on the rooftop of the Factory)

Xana: Free at last! Ah, it feels so good! Those foolish mortals will never stop me now that Aelita's dead. (he crackles like a madman, lightning cracks the skies)

All at once, everything made sense. Aelita was valuable to Xana because he's always needed her for his own plans. Somehow Franz Hopper saved her... I didn't know how it was possible, however, because my visions were broken by Mrs. Fritz.

Mrs. Fritz: William Dunbar! (the vision ends) Stop staring off into space!

William: Oh no... I did it again... (he sighs) I probably missed a bunch of notes.

Sammy: Don't worry, William. I thought this might happen. That's why I wrote yours for you.

Priscilla: How would you have enough time to write down notes for the both of you?

Sammy: I'm ambidextrous, and can write with both of my hands. (he writes Sammy on his paper with his left hand and William on the other paper with his right hand)

Maithas: Impressive. (Priscilla gasps, William smiles, Mrs. Fritz raises an eyebrow)

After we finished our notes, we received our homework and chemistry class ended. Soon the day was over. Now what? I thought to myself. I could start on my homework, could go to the Factory, yet risk being caught... What to do, what to do... I added the series of visions to the book and told Sammy about them.

Sammy: Now that you understand Jeremie's motivation, I think you should go to the Factory, help him, and apologize to him. Not necessarily in that order.

William: Do you even think he would forgive me?

Sammy: It's worth a try, isn't it? (William thinks to himself for a minute)

William: You have a good point. I'll do it!

Sammy: Good luck, William. (he runs off)

I went down to the sewers, grabbed my skateboard, and rushed to the Factory. I thought that Jeremie might already be there at the Supercomputer, setting up a self-virtualization to go to Lyoko. But by the time I had arrived at the lab, I realized he was already at Lyoko. I set up a self-virtualization like Jeremie showed me earlier, then ran to the scanner.

(William virtualizes into the Forest Sector, he sees Jeremie fighting Xana-Aelita, who is flying in mid-air, she throws an energy field at Jeremie, who quickly dodges it)

Jeremie: Aelita, you don't have to do this!

Xana-Aelita: You fool! You'll never stop Xana! We're so close to victory. As soon as we find my wretched father and eliminate him, we'll be unstoppable!

I took note of Jeremie's form, and he was the only one who didn't look evil. He wore a green cap and outfit with blue boots. He had a shield with the symbol of Lyoko on it, and he had a light-weight sword to use against enemies.

Jeremie: Aelita, come back to me...

Xana-Odd: You'll never defeat her, Jeremie! (he fires arrows at him, William rises his sword to protect Jeremie from laser arrows)

Jeremie: William?

William: I know this isn't the best time... (he drops his sword to dodge Yumi's fans) But I want to apologize for what I did... I didn't understand your motivation. I'm sorry, Jeremie. I was just... an idiot... (he barely dodges Xana-Ulrich and his katana)

Jeremie: You're not an idiot, William! Maybe a bit inconsiderate and rebellious, but you're not an idiot.

William: I wouldn't call myself a rebel, I'm just a little rebellious. Now let's get Aelita back!

Xana-Yumi: You couldn't beat us last time, so how will you stop us now?

William: Yumi, I'm never giving up on you. I don't want to fight you, but I now realize that I have no choice. (he grabs his sword, William and Jeremie charge into battle)


	10. I'm Sorry, Yumi

Jeremie told me that if one of the Lyoko Warriors was devirtualized with his sword (he moved the program from my sword to his) that they would be free from Xana's control. But before the angel fell, the strangest thing happened.

Jeremie: I hate having to do this, but you leave me no choice. (Jeremie slashes through Xana-Aelita at her shoulder at the same time William strikes her in the back, she devirtualizes in red pixels, screaming)

William: What the heck just happened?

Jeremie: Did it work?

William: Only one way to find out. Return to the lab, I'll handle these guys. (Jeremie devirtualizes himself with his sword and disappears)

After that, I was left to face the remaining three Xana Warriors with no assistance from Einstein. But because of this situation, this war against Xana, I was starting to believe I had to handle everything all by myself.

(William uses his sword and deflects Xana-Odd's laser arrows, he kicks Xana-Odd down but he gets up and charges at William, kicking him in the face and knocking him down, William gets up, grabs his sword and devirtualizes Xana-Odd in red pixels, Xana-Ulrich punches him in the face and knocks him into a way tower)

William: Ok, this isn't working... (Xana-Yumi follows him, he turns around and sees her smiling evilly, she then pushes him off the platform, he grabs her wrist, they dive into the data stream)

I wasn't sure what was going on at first, but I soon found myself in the Desert Sector. I learned that way towers could be used for getting to any other sector on Lyoko, with the exception of Sector 5. I quickly learned that Xana-Ulrich followed me. Now I had to fight both of them.

(Xana-Ulrich uses Super Sprint to reach William, he charges his sword with an energy wave and when Xana-Ulrich and Xana-Yumi get near him, he sends Xana-Ulrich falling towards the Digital Sea and Yumi nearly falls in, but she regains her balance and throws one of her fans at William)

Xana-Yumi: You are a fool, William. Do you really think you can defeat Xana?

To be honest, I didn't think I could defeat Xana, but I had to at least try.

(William swings his sword at Xana-Yumi, only for her to somersault and dodge his moves, he throws an energy wave at Xana-Yumi with his sword, but she deflects it with her fans, she throws her fans back at him, he back-flips and finds himself close to the edge of the Desert Sector, he looks at the Digital Sea below him, Xana-Yumi walks towards him)

I knew that if any warrior under Xana's control fell into the Digital Sea (such as Ulrich for example) they would be safe. But if I fell in, I'd be lost forever. Under Xana's control, Yumi cornered me and I was dangerously close to death...

Xana-Yumi: Looks like you're you're going to die, pretty boy. Any last words? (she pulls out her fans, William holds up his sword)

William: I'm sorry, Yumi. (he closes his eyes and Xana-Yumi screams, he opens them and he sees Xana-Yumi disappearing for a second, he then drops his sword)

I couldn't bear to see Yumi disappear before my eyes, so I closed my eyes, held up my sword and devirtualized her. I softly cried until I heard a familiar voice bring me back to reality.

Jeremie (off-screen): William? Are you ok? (he looks up)

William: I'm fine. I defeated the other Xana-Warriors. Did it work? Is Aelita back and free from Xana's control?

Jeremie (off-screen): She is. I'll bring you back in so you can see her.

I was brought back to Earth and I meet Jeremie and Aelita in the lab. I told them of my visions with Aelita and Franz Hopper. Jeremie and Aelita were rather shocked.

Jeremie: Wow. It looks like you may know more about Aelita's father than we do.

Aelita: Jeremie, do you think there's still a way to save him?

Jeremie: I think there is a way, but the idea I have in mind is rather... complicated. I'm not even sure if it's possible.

William: What is that idea?

Jeremie: I can tell you later. It's been a long day.

I went up the elevator and decided to be alone on the ground floor of the Factory. I was still upset about having to devirtualize Yumi, but I didn't want the others to see it.


	11. Progress Report to Sam

I was staring off into space until Jeremie and Aelita came to the upper floor of the factory.

(Jeremie holds Aelita's hand)

Aelita: Jeremie, is something wrong?

Jeremie: Aelita... I've lost you three times now. To be honest, I didn't know if we would ever get you back to Earth with William being a rebel. I mean, rebellious.

Aelita: Rebellious?

Jeremie: He wanted to save Yumi from Xana's control.

Aelita: Really? And why would that be the case?

Jeremie: I don't know why he wanted to save her first. Nonetheless, Aelita, you mean so much to me. When I first saw you, I couldn't believe how beautiful you were. The day we were able to materalize you into was one of the best days of my life. Aelita, I know that you didn't want to be saved at first, but there's a reason I didn't want to let you go. Every time I lost you, I cried. Look, Aelita... There's something I've been meaning to tell you for a long time, the reason I try so hard to protect you. You mean everything to me... (he hugs her)

Aelita: Jeremie?

Jeremie: I... I love you Aelita. (he kisses her, they madly blush)

Aelita appeared to be shocked at first, but after three seconds, she kissed him back and threw her hands around his neck. In turn, he circled his hands around her waist. If I didn't know better, I would have assumed that Jeremie wanted to save Aelita first because he loved her, but because of those visions, I knew that wasn't the case. Jeremie was really lucky when it came to getting the girl of his dreams. As for me, not quite...

(William stands in the hallway of Cours Cyrano, he sees a girl with long black hair talking with her friends, the girl and her friends walk away, he sighs)

William: Why doesn't she notice me? (Taelia walks up to him)

Taelia: Maybe she doesn't like you.

Patrick: Don't be mean! (Patrick walks to William from his left)

William: Hey, I'm trying to be optimistic here.

Patrick: Don't crush his hopes, Taelia.

Taelia: I'm not trying to crush his hopes, but I think that Vanessa may be taken.

William: Really? I thought she was still single.

Taelia: I don't know. It was just a rumor I heard in the halls.

William: Vanessa Sterling, the prettiest girl in school, taken by someone else? Nah!

Patrick: I doubt that.

William: I was about to say that, but you beat me to it.

My flashback came to a halt as my phone vibrated loudly in my pocket, bringing me back to reality. Jeremie and Aelita were still smooching, believing that with the exceptions of themselves, that the Factory was deserted. They stopped upon hearing the sound of my phone vibrate.

Jeremie: William, what are doing here? I thought you had left.

William: I was having a flashback until my phone vibrated and brought me to reality. (his phone vibrates again, he sees it's Sammy and picks up) Hello?

Sammy (on phone): Hey, William. It's getting rather late. Were there any problems with the mission?

William: No, not at all. The project was successful.

Sammy (on phone): Project? You mean saving Aelita and making amends with Jeremie?

William: Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean. And to be honest, I've lost track of the time.

Sammy (on phone): It's 6:50. You missed dinner, but I snuck something out of the cafeteria for you.

William: Really? You're too kind. I'll be back at Kadic in a few minutes.

Sammy (on phone): Ok, you can tell me how it all went down once you get back. See you there.

William: See ya! (he hangs up)

Aelita: Who was that?

William: That was my best friend Sammy, who was wondering when I'd get back to Kadic.

Jeremie: He knows your absent?

William: Sam knows that I left Kadic, but he doesn't know what I was doing. I'll see you guys later. (William runs away)

Jeremie (off-screen): So, where were we?

Somehow, he kept my dinner warm, and as I ate, I told him of our progress.

Sammy: That's good to hear. Do you think it will be that easy to save the others? (William continues to eat his mashed potatoes, he swallows, then drinks some water)

William: Sadly, I don't think that will be the case...


	12. I Dine With the Ishimaya Family

Now that Aelita was back, I wondered if I was going to be important to the Lyoko Warriors. To get my mind off my troubles, I decided to take a walk around Boulogne-Billiancourt, a suburb district in Paris, France. I eventually came upon the Ishimaya residence. Sadly, I knew that Yumi was still gone. Obviously, her parents knew that she was gone/missing, but they didn't know that she was possessed by Xana.

William (muttering): Yumi, one day... I'll save you from Xana. I promise. (a police officer approaches him)

Officer: What are you doing here?

William: Nothing much. Is there a problem, officer?

Officer: That house that you are in front of, do you live there?

William: No, I don't. Why do you ask?

Officer: Then why are you standing outside as if you live there?

William: I.. I was... um... waiting for... (Mrs. Ishimaya sees him)

Mrs. Ishimaya: I wasn't expecting you to be here so early. We just got back from the movie theater. Come on in!

I was rather surprised by her sudden behavior, but rather than being interrogated (and possibly arrested for loitering), I went inside. The officer didn't follow me.

Mrs. Ishimaya: I asked for him to come here! Have a good day! (she closes the door)

Mr. Ishimaya: I'm guessing you're a friend of Yumi.

William: I am. I'm William Dunbar. I'm not sure if your daughter has ever mentioned anything about me.

Mr. Ishimaya: She once said you were close friends. How close are you two?

William: Before she disappeared... We were... best friends.

Young boy (off-screen): Best friends? That's crazy! I thought her best friend and boyfriend was Ulrich!

Mrs. Ishimaya: Hiroki, stop prying into your sister's personal life! (Hiroki is seen at the top of the stairs, then shrugs before going downstairs)

William: Hiroki? I'm guessing he's Yumi's little brother?

Mrs. Ishimaya: That's right. I'm guessing Yumi never mentioned him, did she?

William: Not that I can remember.

Mrs. Ishimaya: It's going to be a while before dinner is ready. Would you like a tour of the house?

William: Yes, and, Mrs. Ishimaya? (she turns to William) Why did you save me from interrogation back there?

Mrs. Ishimaya: I believed your intentions were pure, or at least, not bad. From what I can tell, I was right about you.

Mr. Ishimaya: Come with me. I'll show you around.

Yumi's father, Takeho, decided to show me around the house while Akkio, Yumi's mother, was preparing dinner for us. After Mr. Ishimaya finished the tour, we had a friendly conversation about my school life.

Mr. Ishimaya: I'm guessing Mrs. Fritz doesn't like you very much?

William: She hates my guts. At least, that's what I thought.

Mr. Ishimaya: If Yumi was here, do you think that she would get along with Mrs. Fritz?

William: Probably. The only other person that Mrs. Fritz seems to scold would be a guy in my class by the name of Christophe, and Yumi isn't like him at all.

Mr. Ishimaya: Why, what does he...?

Mrs. Ishimaya: Oh boys, dinner's ready!

The table was already set up, and on our plates were various different kinds of sushi. The sushi tasted great, but I had some trouble using the chopsticks.

Mrs. Ishimaya: In hindsight, making sushi may not of been the best idea.

William: It's ok. I know of your Japanese heritage and I respect your customs. Even if I am terrible at using chopsticks. (he drops the sushi on the plate)

Mr. Ishimaya: It's alright. I can understand why a French boy like you would have difficulty using chopsticks for a while.

William: I'm Scottish, actually, but you've got the right idea. (he gets the sushi to his mouth and chews on it)

Mrs. Ishimaya: You're Scottish? (he swallows)

William: For ten years I lived in Melrose, Scotland in the United Kingdom.

Hiroki: So, if you lived there for ten years, what made you guys move?

William: It's actually a long story that has many events leading up to another. But... I guess it started the day I met Emily Dunlap.


	13. End of Love

I supposed it started the day I met Emily Dunlap. She was a pretty girl, and when I first met her, she was nine years old, like me. She had long red and wavy hair, which she always wore in pigtails, or on special occasions, she would put her hair in a big braid. Her eyes were green, her skin was very pale, and she had a few freckles on her cheeks. We were close friends in Melrose Primary School. Eventually, I fell in love with her and told her my feelings for her. She loved me back, but her father, David Dunlap, absolutely hated me.

No matter what I did, he never trusted me or liked me going out with his daughter. Maybe that's because we were ten years old at the time. Maybe it's because I was more rebellious back in those days then I am now, but whatever the reason, Mr. Dunlap never trusted me. After we had been going out for six weeks, we decided to go to the Melrose Fall Festival, an annual party that was held on September 21st, or any Saturday close to the Fall Equinox. We had snuck out of the gym to one of the more deserted areas of the school so we could have some alone time. I wore an orange long-sleeved shirt and black jeans while Emily wore a red dress with her hair in a braid.

Emily: This festival has been so fun... (she sighs)

William: Sweetheart, what's wrong?

Emily: My dad doesn't know anything about this. I feel bad for having to lie to him.

William: Does he know where you are?

Emily: He knows I'm at the Fall Festival, but I told him that I was going alone.

William: Why would he even need to know? (he puts his hand to her face) I don't care what your father says, and neither should you. I... I love you, Emily...

I leaned in to kiss her, and she did the same but before our lips met, I heard a loud scream.

Emily: What was that?!

William: I don't know, but I don't like the sound of that... (a criminal appears) I don't like the look of it either!

The criminal had a hood over his face, so neither of us knew what the criminal really looked like. He appeared to be about 14 to 15 years old, and wore an entirely black outfit, ski mask and everything.

Criminal: You won't get out alive!

William: Run, Emily! I'll take care of this creep!

Emily: William, are you crazy?! You'll be killed!

William: So will you if you don't get out of here! (the criminal throws William aside onto the floor, he points his gun at William)

Emily: William, watch out! (he fires a bullet, Emily gets the bullet for William, getting shot in the heart, she falls to the ground)

William: Emily, no!

I wanted make him pay for killing Emily, but after another blow to the head, I fell unconscious and slipped into a coma. For three hours. When I woke up, David blamed me for her death, even though I wasn't responsible for it at all. He believed I was responsible, and to try and prove him wrong, I went to his house to tell him the truth. Although it was a stormy day, I wouldn't rest until he knew I was innocent.

David: You're a liar, and you're evil. You'll suffer from your own bad deeds one day.

William: But Mr. Dunlap, I'm telling you, I'm inno...

David: You are bad, you are the worst. Before you know it, you will be cursed. Years from now, you'll face the darkness from above, and you will lose your one true love. You will hide your hopes and lose your breath, until you finally see the face of death. In the end, you will fall, and before you die, you will lose it all!

William: Look, you gotta believe me. This wasn't my fault!

David: It was all your fault and because of it, you will be cursed. Just you wait. (he slams the door shut)

William: But it wasn't... (he sees a storm brewing, it begins to rain heavily and he runs away)

I ran back to my house, crying, and trying to avoid being struck by lightning in this hard storm. When I finally got back to my house, I was devastated. It was flooded and mostly destroyed. With my house destroyed, Emily dead, and no other relatives who lived in Melrose to help us, there was no reason to stay there anymore. My mother came up with the idea to move to Nice, France. And ever since then, things were never really the same anymore.

Mr. Ishimaya: How unfortunate... You get blamed for something that wasn't even your fault.

William: Yeah, sorry for the sad story. I should of given you a warning. Do you know what time it is?

Hiroki: It's almost nine o'clock.

William: Oh dear, I've been here much longer than I thought. Thanks for having me over for dinner.

Mrs. Ishimaya: You're welcome. I hope Yumi will return...

William: So do I, Mrs. Ishimaya. You're not the only one who misses her. (Hiroki rises an eyebrow as William leaves)


	14. Darkness Returns

After having dinner with the Ishimayas, I went back to my bedroom and retired early that night. I was hoping that I could at least see Yumi in my own dreams, but my dreams had other plans for me. I found myself in the school cafeteria, facing a black-cloaked foe. It was almost pitch-black and it was hard to tell who it was. My instincts were telling me that it was Xana or Mrs. Fritz, but my mind told me that it may not be either of them.

William: Who are you, and what are you doing here?

Foe: You don't remember me? Or what you did?

William: Wh... what did I do? I... I don't know what you're talking about! Just leave me alone! (William wakes up, breathing heavily)

Sammy: William? Are you ok?!

William: I'm fine. It was just a nightmare...

I tried to reassure myself that things would be ok, but I couldn't help but think that Mrs. Fritz was going to try and murder me. Shortly after her arrival, I was convinced that she was out to get me. Mr. Dunlap, Mrs. Fritz, and Xana... Three dangerous foes. One was long gone and would never find me, one was really nosy and mean to me, and the last one was deadly dangerous. It was November 30th, about a week after dining with the Ishimayas. The school day was over and dinner was being served at the Kadic cafeteria. Because I was too anxious and depressed, I didn't have much appetite. Just then, I got a message from Sammy Andrews.

It said, _William, red alert! Get to the cafeteria now!_ I thought to myself, _This must be a Xana attack_. I ran to the cafeteria but when I entered the building, it was completely dark and most of tables were put away. It was as if you had room to dance or engage in a fencing duel.

William: Hello? Sammy? Is anyone here? (William is kicked down by a black-cloaked foe)

Foe: Hello there, William. Miss me? (he gets up and sees his the foe)

William: Who are you and what are you doing here?

Foe: You don't remember me? Or what you did?

William: Wh... what did I do? I... I don't know what you're talking about!

I then noticed that, with the exceptions of Yumi and Priscilla, every 10th grader in my class was tied up and cowering in fear.

Foe: Maybe you don't remember the sound of my voice, but you'll remember these words I said to you a long time ago. You are bad, you are the worst. Before you know it, you will be cursed. Years from now, you'll face the darkness from above, and you will lose your one true love. You will hide your hopes and lose your breath, until you finally see the face of death. In the end, you will fall, and before you die, you will lose it all! (William gasps)

William: No... It can't be... David Dunlap? (the foe removes his black cloak)

David: That's right. I thought karma would punish you for your bad deeds. Turns out I was wrong.

William: I never did anything wrong!

David: If you didn't kill my daughter, then who did?

William: I don't know! He got away before the police could catch him! Mr. Dunlap, I don't want to fight you!

David: That's too bad, because I'm going to destroy you, Dunbar!

Sammy: William, are you really going to fight him?

William: What choice do I have? (to David) If you want me, come and get me! (David charges towards William, he side-steps and tries to kick him down but David throws him towards Maithas and Emmanuel)

Emmanuel: You can't give up, William! Who knows what he'll do to us if you fail?

William: How did he even capture you guys?

Maithas: He used laughing gas then ambushed us one by one. I discovered it only too late as me and Anais were the last 10th graders to be tied up.

William: That explains it. Do you have any pepper spray?

Maithas: Yeah, it's in my left pocket. (William searches for it) Why? (he grabs the pepper spray)

William: I'm going to need to borrow this for a few moments, if you don't mind.

Maithas: Go ahead.

Emmanuel: Don't give in, no matter what. (William stands up, and glares at David)

William: You will pay for what you've done, Dunlap!

David: You're dead, Dunbar! (he charges towards William, holding up a dagger)


	15. Not Gonna Die Tonight

It was up to me to save my defenseless classmates. I didn't entirely know how I was going to defeat David Dunlap, but I was not gonna die tonight. If I failed, who knows what would happen to them?

William: Bring it on, Dunlap. (he continues to charge towards William, he sprays the pepper spray at his eyes)

David: Ahh! My eyes! I hate pepper spray! (William trips Mr. Dunlap and he falls to the ground, he gets up and tries to punch William in the face, he barely dodges, William is kicked in the knee, David grabs him by his collar and throws him out the door, he leaves the cafeteria and watches as William gets up) You wretched criminal, why do you still live? Why do you still fight if you've lost everything?!

I remembered a flashback of me and Yumi on Valentine's Day last year.

(William walks up to Yumi, holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand)

William: Yumi, I've got something for you. (he gives the bouquet to her)

Yumi: Oh, thank you William. (she smiles)

I smiled back at her, then listened as Ulrich read his poem to Sissi, which I now know was for Yumi.

Yumi: William, your bouquet is beautiful! How did you know I liked roses?

William: I didn't. But I figured you were like all the other girls.

Ulrich: How romantic! (he laughs)

Yumi: Just a bit awkward. Thank you, William. You couldn't of made me happier. (Yumi kisses William on the cheek, he blushes, the flashback ends)

William: I've lost almost all that I love, so I'm fighting to get it all back! (he punches David in the face, David steps on his foot, William kicks him in the knee, he kicks him into the left door of the cafeteria, he gets up as David growls, Sammy appears from the right door)

Sammy: William, catch! (Sammy throws the rope over to him, William lassos David then spins him around, until he gets dizzy, William kicks him down unconscious and ties him up)

William: That's what you get for messing with the wrong warrior. (the police car arrives at the same time Priscilla, Mrs. Fritz, and Mr. Delmas do)

Priscilla: What happened here?

Mrs. Fritz: William, what did you do?

William: Look, this mess isn't my fault. (Mrs. Fritz glares at him)

Mr. Delmas: Let him speak, Mrs. Fritz.

I told Priscilla and the grownups what happened in an honest manner. Afterwards, we freed the captive students that were still trapped in the cafeteria.

David: You are evil, William. You are... (Mr. Delmas throws rope around David's mouth)

Mrs. Fritz: How can we even tell William is innocent? (the officers throw David into the car)

William: Mrs. Fritz, until Emily's death, I was in love with her. Why would I murder her? (David says some muffled words and hangs his head in shame)

Mr. Delmas: He does have a point, Selena.

Officer: You're not so bad, kid... (he looks at Priscilla questionably then shrugs, the police officers leave with their sirens on)

Anais: You know, that was really brave of you back there.

Emmauel: If only Yumi was here to see it...

William (muttering): If only... If only...

After the 10th graders that were present (except for Priscilla) gave me their thanks, me and Sammy went back to our dorm room. I thought to myself that it couldn't get much better, but little did I know, things were about to get much worse. David Dunlap was only a minor foe compared to others that I would face. But the strangest thought occurred to me only moments before I fell asleep.

 _How did David Dunlap even find me in the first place?_


	16. Down in Flames

That night, I actually slept peacefully. It was one of the few times that I didn't want to wake up.

(William and Yumi are standing in the Ice Sector)

Yumi: William... I have something to tell you. (she throws her arms around his neck) I... I love you. (she leans in to kiss him, he does the same, their lips nearly touch when an alarm goes off, William wakes up, groaning)

William: Do I really have to get up?

Sammy: Sadly, yes. (he folds up the futon) Were you dreaming about Yumi again?

William: Don't tell Priscilla. (he gets up)

Sammy: I won't. She'll never figure out that you really like her.

William: I hope she doesn't, cause if she knows I like Yumi, she can use that against me.

It was December 1st, 2006. Up until chemistry class, I was having a good day. Then came the in class lab.

Mrs. Fritz: Good day, students. The day you've all been waiting for is here. The lab! Before you begin, you will assigned in teams of two by me. Due to there being an odd number of students, we will have one of group of three. The groups are Anais and Maithas, Christophe and Samuel, Emmauel, Maitena and Caroline, William and Priscilla...

William: Me and her?! (Priscilla smirks)

Mrs. Fritz: Yes, Dunbar. You and Priscilla have been arguing inside and outside of class for far too long. I don't know what it's over, but it's time for you two to settle your differences.

William/Priscilla: She's saying stuff that's not even true! She is a liar!/ He won't admit the truth about how he feels about Yumi!

Mrs. Fritz: Enough, both of you! You two must cooperate if you want a good grade on this assignment. No more fighting, no more arguments. You two are partners. Get used to it.

There was no arguing with Mrs. Fritz. At least, not in this case. We started on the lab and went through it at about an average pace. Priscilla then handed me a test tube with the substance we were supposed to put into the water or... _Wait a minute._ I thought to myself. The label said NaCl. NaCl? This can't be right... I thought. I knew what the chemical symbols Na and Cl stood for.

Priscilla: William? Is something wrong?

William: I don't think this is the right mineral to add to the water.

Priscilla: Did you not even read the directions?

William: Of course I did. Did you? (Priscilla takes the vial from William)

Priscilla: I know we have the right one. (she is about to pour it into the water)

William: No, we don't! (he grabs the vial and tries to pull it away from Priscilla) If you add that in, it'll cause a fire!

Mrs. Fritz: William, Priscilla, stop this at once! (he pulls it away from Priscilla but it is launched into the air and cracks) No! (the white liquid falls into flasks with water, the vial lands over by Anais and breaks, several explosions occur knocking Maithas down and knocking Anais unconscious, Mrs. Fritz gasps in terror)

At first, I didn't know whether to blame Xana, Priscilla or just my dirty rotten luck. After three seconds, I chose to blame my lab partner.

William: Now look what you've done! (he stares angrily at her)

Priscilla: What I've done?! (she glares at him, an alarm goes off)

Mrs. Fritz: Everyone, evacuate the building! (Mrs. Fritz, Priscilla and several other students flee, William runs but stops when he hears Maithas struggling)

Maithas: William, I need your help! She's unconscious and I can't lift her! Grab her legs!

It was not easy to get Anais out of the building. It wasn't that she was heavy, because she wasn't, but shortly after Mrs. Campbell's room caught fire, several other rooms were smoking as well. The whole building was burning up!

William: Come on, just a little bit farther! (the floor is covered with broken glass coming from the shattering windows and flaming materials)

Maithas: We'll never get out of here! There's too much fire and sharp glass!

William: Maithas, we have to jump over it!

Maithas: Are you crazy?!

William: Maybe, but if you want to save her, you have to trust me! (he sees a spreading fire behind them, more of the building crumbles)

Maithas: This whole building is going down in flames... (the flames get closer to them)


	17. I Get Interrogated Again

The fire blocked our only way out of the science building, but we had to save Anais.

William: Ready? (the glass breaks smouldering some fire) Now! (they jump over the glass, Maithas's clothes catch on fire, he stops and rolls on the ground to smother them out, he grabs Anais by her back and they escape the building)

Maithas: That was too close... Do you have a jacket I can borrow? My shirt's almost completely singed and it's freezing outside.

William: No, I don't. Where is Mrs. Fritz and the rest of our classmates?

Herb: They're over there, next to the cafeteria. (Herb and Nickolas look at Anais)

Nickolas: What happened to her?

William: Long story short, she was knocked out. Thanks for the directions!

We got over to Mrs. Fritz, whom, much to my dismay, was talking with a few police officers.

(Mrs. Fritz looks William and Maithas carrying Anais)

Mrs. Fritz: Where have you been? (she looks at Maithas) What happened to your clothes?

Maithas: My clothes caught on fire while William and I were trying to save Anais. (Maithas shivers as he and William set Anais down) Does anyone have a jacket or a coat that I can borrow? It's freezing for a day in the late fall...

While the police officers gave Maithas a jacket, I felt something grab my wrist and cover my mouth, dragging me away from the police. At first, I thought it was Xana. But it wasn't.

Priscilla: William, what were you thinking back there?!

William: What were you thinking? Unless you're extremely dumb, you should know that the chemical symbol NaCl stands for sodium chloride! You know what happens when an unstable sodium chloride solution mixes with water! It causes fire and explosions! (he points at her) You were trying to set the school on fire and have me be blamed for it!

Priscilla: What? I did no such thing!

William: You liar! You've been lying from the very beginning! (he balls up his fists)

Priscilla: A liar, moi? Nonsense! You've been the one lying!

William: I am not a liar!

Priscilla: You won't admit that you love Yumi, you teller of untruths! (William growls, then tackles her and tries to pin her down, he pins her wrist to the ground, she grabs his neck and attempts to choke him with her right hand) You no good bastard!

William (gasping): You liar! You evil little bitch! (he attempts to punch Priscilla in the face)

Mrs. Fritz: Knock it off, both of you! (they turn towards Mrs. Fritz, Mr. Delmas, three police officers, Milly and Tamiya, Milly gets some pictures of them together)

Milly: This is perfect! Just what we've been looking for!

Priscilla: I just want to say that is all his fault! (he glares at her)

William: You're the one who tried to...!

Mr. Delmas: Enough, both of you! (Mr. Delmas and a police officer grab William and pull him away from Priscilla, Mrs. Fritz helps her up)

Officer 1: You are in a lot of trouble, young man.

We were escorted to the principal's office and told our sides of the story. First Mrs. Fritz spoke, then Priscilla, and finally I told the story from my point of view.

William: I accused her of being a liar, she accused me of being a liar, I denied being a liar, then she said that I wouldn't admit my so-called "crush" on Yumi Ishimaya.

Officer 2: To be honest, we think she may be right about that. Do you love Yumi?

William: Do I really have to...?

Officer 3: Answer the question! (William sighs)

William: I'd rather get six hours of detention then admit it to Priscilla, but, yes. I'm truly, madly and deeply in love with Yumi. There, I said it. Are you happy now?

Priscilla: I knew it. You're not only a liar, you're a bad liar as well.

Officer 1: Continue with your story.

William: We got insulted each other and got into a fight. I pinned her down and she tried to choke me to death. I nearly punched her, then Mrs. Fritz and the other adults interfered. You separated us and dragged us here to be interrogated. That is my side of the story, but I don't think I'm getting out of trouble this time...

Mrs. Fritz: You, William Dunbar, are in a lot of trouble. (he gulps)


	18. Nobody Needs Me

Author's Notes:

-Happy Halloween! Too bad you guys get more angst instead of tricks or treats...

Mr. Delmas: William and Priscilla are definitely in trouble. Now the question is what should we do to punish them?

Mrs. Fritz: I say that we should expel William from the school and give Priscilla two hours of detention.

Officer 1: Sounds harsh.

Mrs. Fritz: So what? It's all his fault.

Officer 2: I wouldn't say that's the case. You're the one who pushed the rivals together by forcing them to be lab partners. They fought against each other, both with words and physical force, causing the building to go up in smoke. Personally, I'd blame all three of them.

Officer 3: Maybe Mrs. Fritz should be fired.

Mr. Delmas: Sadly, I can't do that. Mrs. Fritz is the substitute chemistry teacher for Mrs. Campbell. If I fire her, who will take Mrs. Campbell's place?

Mrs. Fritz (muttering): Oh dear... Mrs. Campbell won't be happy to hear about this...

Mr. Delmas: But seriously, what are we going to do with these naughty children?

The police officers left, as they heard about a robbery in an electronics store. Mrs. Fritz and Mr. Delmas were arguing over how we should be punished when Jim, our PE teacher, came into the room.

Jim: What did they do this time?

Mr. Delmas gave Jim a summary of the events, and the gym teacher pondered to himself quietly for a few moments. Then he spoke.

Jim: Mr. Delmas, if I were you, I would separate those two students. Give one a suspension from school tomorrow, and the other one at least four hours of detention.

Mr. Delmas: Thanks for the idea, Jim. I think I know just how to punish them. (he looks at Priscilla) Priscilla Blaise, you will be suspended from school tomorrow. And...

Priscilla: And?

Mr. Delmas: Tomorrow night, the theater department from Mathison will be coming over here to perform a play, as their auditorium isn't big enough. The play has a big food fight scene near the end, and I was going to make Jim clean it up, but you're doing that instead.

Priscilla: What? (William snickers under his breath)

Mr. Delmas: Don't laugh, William Dunbar. After school, you have six hours of detention to serve!

William: Six hours?! Why six hours?

Mr. Delmas: You said you'd rather get six hours of detention than admit to Priscilla about your feelings for Yumi. You may be honest, but you're still in trouble regardless. Blaise and Dunbar, you two are dismissed. And don't get into anymore trouble. (Priscilla and William leave) Jim, Selena, I'd like to speak with both of you, if you don't mind.

Classes were cancelled for the day. Thanks to the science building going up in smoke, all the teachers that were over there had to be relocated. The day was over, I was outside the cafeteria. Several hours had passed, and dinner was being served, but I didn't have much appetite. _This is terrible,_ I thought to myself. I always try to do the right thing, but... I can never do it and or something else happens making it worse. Sometimes I made things worse... I thought Priscilla's intentions were bad, but what if I was wrong about her? I still hated her, but I also hated Mrs. Fritz. She wanted to expel me for my fights with Priscilla. Instead I got a six hour detention session after school. I felt awful. What's the point of being somewhere where you're not wanted or needed? I went to the bench I fell asleep on, then I got another vision...

(William sees himself, and several students in the cafeteria)

William: No, I'm not joking! Hello? (he dials his phone again) Zombies, that's right. As in out of the tomb!

Aelita: I hope Ulrich got away alright.

Odd: Don't worry, he's probably at the Factory by now and we better join him asap.

I began to remember that this was the zombie invasion.

(the scene fast forwards to William talking to Jeremie)

William: A supercomputer that lets you go into a virtual universe where you have to battle an evil enemy called Xana...

Jeremie: Uh yes. When you put it that way, I admit it sounds kinda weird.

Aelita: If you wanna stop this zombie attack, Odd, Jeremie and I have to get to the Factory right now.

William: Look, I'm sorry but I don't believe you, so we're all staying together.

I was beginning to recall every event from the zombie attack.

(the scene fast-forwards to Xana-Kiwi showing up in the cafeteria)

Milly: Hey, that's the same dog we saw in the hallway right before Tamiya became zombie-ifed. (Odd walks towards him) Wait, Odd! (Xana-Kiwi bites Odd)

Odd: Ow! Kiwi, what's wrong with you? (he sees the Xana symbol in his eyes) Xana... (Xana-Kiwi walks away and his head begins to hurt)

Jeremie: William, quick, we have to tie him up! (Odd transforms into a zombie and throws Jeremie onto the table)

William: Hurry up! (he, Christophe and Nickolas subdue Odd)

After many more visions, I knew the entirety of what happened. I wish I actually knew better that at time, but where would I be if I had known the truth? I felt really depressed. Jeremie had Aelita now, so he didn't need me as part of the Lyoko Warriors, and nobody needed a pessimistic, violent 14-year old boy in class. I felt unwanted and that the world would be better off without me.

William: Nobody needs me... So why do I stay here? (he takes out a bottle of aspirin) Yumi doesn't even want me, much less need my help... (he swallows a bunch of aspirin pills)

Aelita: William, no! (she runs towards him)

I fainted, slipping into the arms of death.


	19. Dreams of the Dead

I thought I was dead, but to be honest, I didn't really know...

(William sees Aelita running through Sector 5 up to the Interface, the Scyphozoa grabs her, then after a few moments it lets her go, she falls to the ground and gets up, her eyes show the symbol of Xana)

Jeremie: Oh no... Where the heck are the others? (the scene switches to the Core Zone, where Odd shoots a few laser arrows at the Scyphozoa but it still grabs Odd and possesses him, Jeremie starts dialing a number) Where is Ulrich?!

(the scene switches to nearby the elevator, Ulrich runs towards the elevator platform, but the Scyphozoa grabs him, and possesses him, the scene switches to a dual-slide of William running on the left, Yumi being kidnapped and possessed by the Schyphozoa on the right, the screens become one as William reaches Yumi, the Schyphozoa lets her go and leaves)

William: Yumi? (he kneels down to see her) Yumi?! (the Xana symbol flashes in her eyes, she then punches William in the face, she gets up and runs away) Yumi, what's going on? (he gets up and chases after her)

Jeremie: They've all been possessed by Xana due to a large jellyfish creature called the Scyphozoa. (Xana-Yumi uses her telekinesis to float to the Chamber of the Core of Lyoko, Jeremie programs the Overwing, William steps on it and follows Xana-Yumi, he arrives at the chamber and gasps seeing all the Lyoko Warriors under Xana's control, he steps on the ground)

William: This... this can't be real...

Xana-Odd: Dang it, an intruder!

Xana-Aelita: Get him! (Xana-Ulrich tries to slice William with his sword, Xana-Odd fires laser arrows at William, he barely dodges them, Xana-Yumi corners him)

William: Yumi, don't do this...

Xana-Yumi: Goodbye William. (she throws her fans at William, devirtualizing him)

William: Ahh! NO! (he reappears back in the scanners) We... we lost... (he begins to sob, the scene switches to the Xana Warriors in the Core, Yumi throws her fans at the second shield as Odd fires his laser arrows at it, the second shield breaks, Aelita throws an energy field at the Core, destroying it, Lyoko disappears in a beam of white light)

Somehow, my own memories were being mixed in with visions of what happened. Each of the warriors were busy with something and tried to get to Lyoko as soon as they could, but when they arrived, they were too late, and they got captured by the Scyphozoa. I then saw Xana creating the room I saw Yumi being tortured in, but Yumi wasn't there. Ulrich, Aelita and Odd were chained up and trying to break free.

Xana: It's no use struggling. Your powers have been neutralized. Surrender and bow before your new master.

Aelita: We'll never surrender to you, Xana!

Xana: I figured you would say that! (he shocks them with red and black lightning bolts, they become Xana-ifed with their evil outfits, free from their chains) Now where the heck is Yumi? (he sees her floating around unconscious about 50 feet away) Ah, perfect. (he uses telekinesis to grab her, he drags her over and chains her up, she wakes up and attempts to break free from her chains) Give it up, Yumi. You're the last Lyoko Warrior who has yet to fall under my control.

Yumi: You'll never win, Xana, because I'm not the last one left.

Xana: What? What do you mean?

Xana-Ulrich: She's right. There's a new recruit for the Lyoko Warriors named William Dunbar. Never liked that Casanova...

Xana: A new recruit? (he laughs) A rookie like him couldn't hope to stop me. It's over Yumi! (he fires red and black lightning bolts from his hands at Yumi)

Yumi: William, help! (she becomes Xana-ifed with the others and gains her new evil look, free from her chains)

Xana: My servants... Bow before me. (they do so)

Xana-Warriors: Master Xana...

Did the dead dream, recall memories or have visions? Then the scene switched to Melrose Primary School.

Voice: William... William! (he turns around and sees Emily as a ghost)

William: Emily? Is that you? (she smiles at him) Do the dead dream, recall memories and have visions?

Emily: Normally, if a spirit is asleep, they dream of their past life before they died.

William: Am... am I dead?

Emily: No, you're not dead. You were close though. When you fainted, I woke up and made sure your friends would find you.

William: Man, I feel like an idiot... I probably scared my friends. I just felt... unwanted... unneeded... unimportant... and unloved.

Emily: I know what you've been going through recently. Everything from your nasty substitute chemistry teacher, hard gym class, a trouble making girl who could be a criminal, and even how Xana captured your current love, Yumi Ishimaya.

William: You know about all of that?

Emily: Yes, I do. Listen William, the toughest trials are yet to come, and I don't want you to give up. You're meant to be a hero, and you can't give up on Yumi. If you do, something terrible may happen to her. (she begins to fade) I can not stay here much longer, I must get back to my resting place. Goodbye William and good luck.

William: Wait, Emily! Emily! (he wakes up, breathing heavily) I can't believe I'm still alive...

Sammy: William! (he hugs William, who hugs him back) Don't ever scare me like that again!

Jeremie: William, what happened?

William: It's a long story...


	20. Restless

I awoke and saw Sammy, Jeremie, and Aelita around my bed.

William: Guys, to be honest... I felt unwanted and unimportant, and that I always make things worse. Also, I secretly felt like a third wheel because Jeremie has Aelita now. (he sighs)

Aelita: William, why would you feel like you're not wanted or feel unimportant?

William: Everyone in my 9th grade class, not counting Yumi because she's still gone, knows how the fire in the science wing started. There's some information you and Jeremie don't know.

Jeremie: What is that information?

William: Mrs. Campbell went into an early maternity leave due to a preterm labor. Because of this, the school had to quickly hire a substitute teacher to take her place. The only teacher they could find was a very mean and nasty woman called Selena Fritz. She took Mrs. Campbell's place only the day after Yumi and her friends lost their minds. But anyways, Mrs. Fritz hates me, and she also hates how me and Priscilla have argued in and outside of class. To try and put an end to our rivalry, she forced us to be lab partners. We tried to work together, but when Priscilla handed me a sodium-chloride solution, I thought she had bad intentions, and we wrestled over the vial. The vial flew out my hands and cracked, leaked the liquid into several vials of water, broke nearby Anais and Maithas and knocked the former unconscious. And of course, it caused several small fires that consumed the science building.

Aelita: That would explain why I saw you and Maithas carrying Anais when she was completely out cold. What happened next?

William: After me and Maithas saved Anais, which was not an easy task, Priscilla took me away and demanded an explanation for my behavior. We accused each other of being a liar, so we got into a fight and insulted each other, then the grownups separated us and took us to the principal's office for interrogation. I hate being interrogated...

Sammy: How much trouble did you get into?

William: Six hours of detention after school tomorrow, and Priscilla is not only suspended for tomorrow, she must also clean up a food fight scene from a play that will be taking place tomorrow evening.

Aelita: Dang. I would not want to be Priscilla right now.

Sammy: That's really bad... But on the bright side, Priscilla still doesn't know the truth. (William shakes his head sadly, Sammy gasps) She knows how you feel about Yumi?

William: Sadly, she knew I was lying from the very beginning. I thought she was a liar, but she knew I was in denial. What if her intentions were truly good and mine were truly bad? Or even...

Sammy: Priscilla is very shady. This fire incident proves it. Be on your guard, William. I think there's more to her that meets the eye.

William: Will do.

Jeremie: Priscilla, possibly evil? I doubt that. Mrs. Fritz? Maybe...

Aelita: Who's Priscilla?

Sammy: Priscilla Blaise, a mean, selfish and possibly evil girl in William's class. She is arguably considered attractive, but obviously, me and William are not impressed with her looks.

William: Maybe I should of just gone back to sleep instead of going to classes today.

Sammy: You can't ditch school.

William: So? Doesn't Jeremie ditch gym class all the time?

Jeremie: Whatever. We better get back before Jim questions us of our whereabouts.

We then left the hospital. The doctors wanted to contact my parents, but I didn't want them to know of my suicide attempt. Luckily they forgot about me. Once me and my roommate got back to our dorm, I wrote in my _Book of Visions_ and told Sammy what I saw.

Sammy: No wonder you lost your marbles...

William: First I lose Yumi, then my nice chemistry teacher, my decent grades, my optimism, my hopes and dreams, and now I've lost the trust of my fellow classmates and students. Some of them now hate me and see me as evil. I've lost what little sanity I had left. Aside from my life, what more to I have to lose? I've lost everything, Sammy. Everything...

Sammy: You haven't lost everything, William. You still have your friends, including your best friend, which happens to be.. (he points his thumbs at himself) this guy.

William: Thanks for helping me find a silver lining.

Sammy: You should go to sleep. Your dreams should comfort you.

William: I would, but I'm not tired.

Sammy: Well then, could you at least be quiet? I'm getting tired and need some shuteye.

William: Ok, good night, Sam. (he turns off the lights)

Sammy: Goodnight. (he gets under his covers and closes his eyes, William's phone vibrates, he denies the call)

The caller was my mom. Like I said earlier, I didn't want to tell my parents about the fire, Mrs. Fritz, or the suicide attempt. To be honest, I didn't want to tell them anything. I wanted to sleep. I wanted my dreams to comfort me, but sadly, I was restless.


	21. Everybody Hates Me

Author's Notes: Happy Thanksgiving! (To those of you who celebrate it.) Now let's keep this train a chugging!

I was dragged by Sammy (not literally dragged, but you know what I mean) to Mrs. Campbell's new room. Or should I say, Mrs. Fritz's new room, as Mrs. Campbell was still gone.

William (moaning): I don't want to be here...

Sammy: You can't ditch chemistry.

William: Mrs. Fritz doesn't even want me here.

Sammy: Don't say that, William! It's not true!

Mrs. Fritz: Actually, he's right. I don't want him here. Did he tell you I wanted him expelled?

William: See? She hates me! (he groans as the bell rings)

Mrs. Fritz: Good day students. Now normally, I'd tell you to start writing your lab reports, but due to the terrible accident (she glares at William, which scares him) most of you probably lost your lab papers. How many of you need a new one? (every student raises their hands) Just as I thought. (she begins passing out papers) Try to get it done to the best of your ability.

I filled out the lab paper up until I got to the point where me and Priscilla quarreled. Because of our fight, I couldn't answer the next questions. Then again, I didn't think anyone could. Afterwards, I got yet another vision...

(Yumi and Ulrich are hiding behind a rock in the Desert Sector)

Yumi: Ulrich.. I.. (she sighs)

Ulrich: Be careful, Yumi.

Yumi: You too, Ulrich. (they run off in different directions)

I somehow knew this happened a long time ago, like before I started to attend Kadic Academy. After seeing how they, alongside Odd and Aelita, fought against the monsters, I saw Ulrich save Yumi.

Ulrich: It's ok, I got ya. (Ulrich pulls Yumi up,Aelita enters the tower)

Yumi: Ulrich... You... you aren't really dating Emily, are you?

Ulrich: No... Yumi... I... (he closes his eyes and leans in to kiss her, she does the same, their lips nearly touch when a time reversion occurs and he then sees Yumi and Ulrich standing outside Kadic with Sissi, she shrugs)

Sissi: Bunch of creeps. (she walks away)

Ulrich: Yumi, ya know, about what happened on Lyoko. (he blushes) I mean what nearly happened.

Yumi: Uh, now that you mention it. Um... (she blushes) I'd rather you not talk about to Odd and Jeremie. At least, not right away.

Ulrich: Yeah... I agree. Not a word.

What... what was this? Before I showed up, was Yumi in love with Ulrich? Does she still admire him and/or vice-versa? I had no chance to think of a logical answer.

Mrs. Fritz: William! Stop staring off into space! Are you as close to done as you can get?

William: Yes, ma'm. I did every question that was asked before I got into the quarrel with Priscilla yesterday.

Mrs. Fritz: Really? Let me see that. (she takes William's paper and examines it carefully) Well done, William. Every answer on there is correct. Ok, how many of you can not answer the 5th question or any others past five because we didn't get to finish the lab? (everyone raises their hand but Maithas and Anais) Maithas, Anais, do either of you have the correct answers?

They gave us the correct answers and we started on our lab reports. They had to be typed, and we had to do everything correctly. I went down to the track for gym class, but I noticed something was different. In the oval grass area within the track, were a bunch of desks with chairs, and a podium with a pile of papers on it. As the group of students walked to their desks, wearing their jackets, I recognized some of them. Aelita, Jeremie, Sissi, Herb, Nickolas and others. The teacher did not look very happy however.

Teacher: I hate having to drag you out here in the cold, but with the science wing under repair, I don't have much choice. (the students sit down in their rows of three) Stupid William Dunbar... (he walks up to her)

William: Ya know, it's not nice to talk about people behind their back. Especially when they're in the same area as you.

Teacher: What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be suspended?

William: I'm here for Mr. Morales's gym class, and no I wasn't suspended. I got six long hours of detention.

Teacher: Really? They should have punished you harsher, you no good criminal!

William: I am not a criminal!

Nickolas: Then why does she keep telling us that you're evil and we should stay away from you?

Sissi: Nickolas... (she elbows him in the ribs, while Herb, on Sissi's right, looks away)

Teacher: Hey, hey play nice you two. Alright, everyone, open your geography textbooks to chapter seven. (she grabs William by the ear, he hisses in pain) Stay away from my students, and others in general, you evil criminal.

William: Ms, why are you teaching the class outside? It's going to get colder.

Teacher: You don't get it do you? Because the science building burned down, no one can use it anymore. The science teachers need indoor classrooms for their laboratory experiments, so some teachers classed were moved around. There aren't enough classrooms for everyone, so some of us are forced to take our students outside, loiter around the hallways and other areas of the school to teach our students, or other ways to find a place for learning to occur. Because of your actions, some of the students are suffering for it. If you burn down another building, I'll make your life a living hell.

William: Hey, my life is already a living nightmare. And besides, I wasn't responsible for the fire! It was Priscilla's fault!

Teacher: Stop trying to bin the blame on someone else!

William: I'm not, it honestly was her fault! She wanted to set the school on fire and let me be blamed for it! If you just listen to me, you'll see that if I'm not the son of a...

Jim: Dunbar, stop this at once! Get your butt back over here! We're about to start the running!

William: I'm telling you, I'm not guilty. Priscilla is. (he sighs and walks to the starting line, where Maithas, Anais and some other students stand) Why does everybody hate me?

Sammy: Don't say that, William! It's not true! (he turns to see Sammy on the bleachers)

Jim: On your mark, get set, go, go, go!

I ran as fast as I could for one lap, then Sammy did the same, wash, rinse repeat for five laps, which was equals a mile on the outdoor track. Jim said that several classes were using the indoor track for classrooms. Anyways, the goal was to push ourselves beyond what we're used to for the next mile run, which was on Monday. After that and art class, I found myself in Mrs. Fritz's room for detention. Today was a half-day, so school got out at 12:30pm. I thought that I would be forced to be silent and lazy for the next six hours, but my not so new chemistry teacher had other plans for me.

(she hands William a pile of papers)

Mrs. Fritz: Using the answer sheet, you are to grade each and every one of these papers. If they got it right, don't mark anything. If they got it wrong, mark the number with an x using your red pen and take off as many points as they missed. Again, look at the guide. You will be grading each and every one of these papers.

William: Even my own work?

Mrs. Fritz: Yes, now don't mess up. (Mrs. Fritz sits down and begins to silently read a book)

Everybody, especially Mrs. Fritz, really hated me.


	22. I Get a Crazy Idea

After I got out of detention that night, I met Jeremie and Aelita at the crossroads in the woods. But they came with a visitor. The visitor had grey hair and big eyebrows. He had a mustache and a beard, and he wore lab clothing, as if he was a chemistry teacher. My first thought was, _Who is this guy?_

Visitor: I don't remember this guy being possessed by Xana.

William: That's because I wasn't possessed. Wait, how do you...

Jeremie: Sorry, forgot to introduce you two. William, this is Waldo Schaffer, aka, Franz Hopper, Aelita's father. Franz Hopper, meet William Dunbar. Do you mind if we address you as Franz or Mr. Hopper?

Franz Hopper: It's fine by me. Since this young man is clearly not possessed by Xana, I can only assume he's a Lyoko Warrior then. (they walk down the path)

William: The newest recruit, actually. How did they get you into the real world?

Franz Hopper: How come you weren't possessed by Xana?

Aelita: One question at a time, please! Ok, William, you know what the Keys to Lyoko are right?

William: Yeah, I do. Didn't Xana steal them from you at one point in time via the Scyphozoa?

Jeremie: Yes, but there's some information you're missing. When Franz Hopper and Aelita retreated to Lyoko, Hopper created the Keys to Lyoko and split them in half. One for him and one for Aelita. When Aelita got her Keys to Lyoko stolen, Franz gave his Keys to his daughter, reviving her and saving all of Lyoko, but at the price of never being able to be devirtualized. This is, until more recent events occurred.

Aelita: While you were in detention, Jeremie tried out his crazy idea; to split the keys in half again, which took a while, but in the end, it worked.

William: That's great. So, now Franz Hopper could go to and from Lyoko without worry?

Jeremie: Not exactly. Franz Hopper won't be going back to Lyoko unless it's really necessary. If he gets devirtualized, I won't be able to rematerialize him.

William: Oh... That kinda stinks... At least we have another ally.

Franz Hopper: You're always trying to find a silver lining, aren't you, William?

William: I'm trying to, but it's not easy to be optimistic in such dark times. At least, it's not easy for me... And Mr. Hopper, I don't really know how why Xana didn't possess me. Maybe he doesn't really know me or see me as formidable. I honestly have no idea.

Jeremie: I have a theory on that. All of the warriors that were possessed by Xana, they've been the ones fighting him the longest. Me, Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich and Odd have united to fight against Xana for over a year. Because of this, Xana knows how we fight. He knows our weaknesses and tries to use them to his advantage. Xana knew he could possess any warrior with the Scyphozoa, so I think that he wanted to possess the entire group, then kill me off. However, he didn't know about William until after Lyoko was destroyed. Because he didn't know too much about him, he doesn't think that William could be useful to him, and instead has just tried to get rid of him. I don't know if that's true, but that's just my best guess.

I noticed that we were in front of an old house.

William: Where are we?

Aelita: This is the Hermitage. My old home, before me and my father went to Lyoko. It may be a little messy from the break in, but it's a safe haven for us.

We went into the Hermitage and went to what was Aelita's old bedroom. My first thought was, _What happened here? It looks like a twister hit this place!_

Franz Hopper: So, for fighting Xana, what's next?

Jeremie:Well, first off, he still has Odd, Ulrich and Yumi under his control.

I tried to think of an idea on how to save the others. I recalled how Xana could inject a virus into a Lyoko Warrior to control them, as that's how he possessed the Lyoko Warriors. I slowly formed an idea in my head. What if we came up with our own virus to weaken Xana's hold on them? I wanted to ponder over my idea to see if it was actually logical, but my train of thought was derailed.

Aelita: William, are you ok?

William: Oh yeah, I'm fine. Guys, I just got a crazy idea.

I explained to them about the idea that slowly formed in my head.

Jeremie: It seems like a good idea...

Franz Hopper: But would it even be possible?

William: We have to at least try. What do we have to lose?

Franz Hopper: You may have a point, William, is it?

William: Uh-huh. When do we start creating this program?

Jeremie: Tonight, as soon as we get the Factory. William, since you don't know much about computers, you probably wouldn't be able to help much. I'd advise you to get some sleep in the meantime.

William: I bet my friend Sammy is worried about me again. Good luck guys.

Aelita: Thank you, and good night.

I went back to my room and told Sammy the good news as I ate the dinner he snuck out of the cafeteria for me.

Sammy: That's good news. At this rate, you'll get Yumi back safe and sound in no time!

William: I sure hope so. (he takes a drink of water) If only we could get Mrs. Campbell back. Mrs. Fritz is driving me bonkers.

Sammy: I think she's driving everyone nuts.


	23. Arachnophobia

After a long, nightmare-free sleep, I woke up, feeling on top of the world.

Sammy: Today's the day, isn't it?

William: Yes it is.

I worked on my homework and my English project and finished it all. It felt like there was something I was forgetting though... What was it?

(William's phone vibrates, he picks it up)

William: Hello?

Jeremie (on phone): Hey, William. I have good news and bad news.

William: Um, ok, what's the good news?

Jeremie (on phone): Good news, the virus has been completed and ready to be used against the Xana Warriors. The bad news, Xana's activated a tower. So get over here as soon as possible!

William: Will do. See you there. (he hangs up and begins to run)

I got down to the Factory as soon as possible. Franz Hopper was at the Supercomputer instead of Jeremie.

Franz Hopper: Jeremie and Aelita are already waiting for you. Get to the scanner room. (he goes down the elevator to the scanner room) The activated tower is in the Mountain Region. (he gets into the scanner) Transfer William. Scanner William. Virtualization complete. (William appears in the Mountain Sector, he is blasted by a laser from a Blok)

Jeremie: Unfortunately, the welcoming committee has already arrived.

William: You call this a welcoming committee? (he blocks a laser with his sword)

Jeremie: It's one of the many inside jokes in the Lyoko Warriors group. (he uses his sword to slice up some Bloks, and gets hit by a charged laser from the Krab)

After battling the Krabs, I saw that Aelita's outfit changed again. Her wings were pink and there was a star bracelet around her right wrist. The outfit colors were changed to a light pink and magenta. Now that she was free from Xana, Aelita was Jeremie's angel once again.

Franz Hopper (off-screen): Jeremie, you only have 50 life points left.

Jeremie: Thanks for the tip. To be honest, normally I run the Supercomputer and... (a bunch of spider-like monsters surround them, two on each side) Oh crud...

William: What the heck are those things?!

Aelita: Tarantulas. (they fire their lasers and she rises an energy field to protect them) Name given to them by Odd, these monsters can be a pain in a neck, especially for those inexperienced at fighting them. (William nearly gets shoot by a laser from one after Aelita's energy field breaks)

William (sarcastically): Oh great. That means me and Jeremie are dead meat.

I knew that most monsters could be destroyed by hitting the Eye of Xana symbol on them, but I wasn't sure how I was going use my giant sword to do that. Having a fear of spiders didn't help with that either.

(William dodges the lasers and charges at a Tarantula, Aelita flies into the air, shooting an energy field at a Tarantula as Jeremie devirtualizes one with his sword, William slices through the Tarantula, the last Tartantula shots Jeremie with two lasers, devirtualizing him)

William: Huh, I didn't know my sword could slice through certain monsters.

Franz Hopper (off-screen): The activated tower is at the end of that path. Watch out for nasty surprises.

(William runs along the path while Aelita flies right beside him, he sees the wide space with the activated tower, they suddenly stop a few feet before the path ends)

Aelita: Oh dear. A bunch of Krabs and Megatanks.

William: And the other Xana Warriors... (he points to Xana-Odd, Xana-Ulrich, and Xana-Yumi guarding the tower and conversing with each other) Got any ideas on how to approach this situation?

Aelita: Yes, but you're not going to like it.

It turns out, I was going to be bait. I successfully managed to devirtualize the Krabs, but my sword was knocked out of my hands by a Megatank.

Franz Hopper (off-screen): Oh no...

Aelita: Oh no... Why oh no?

Franz Hopper (off-screen): Xana's beginning to counter the virus. We have only a minute to try and save the other warriors.

(William charges towards Yumi, he nearly gets hit by a Megatank, Aelita throws an energy field at Ulrich, but he reflects it with his swords and hits William, knocking him to the ground, he gets up and dodges Laser Arrows, one of Ulrich's swords thrown at him, and one of Yumi's fans, he sees his sword is too far away, picks up Yumi's fan and throws it towards Yumi)

William: This better work... (he is devirtualized by a Megatank's laser) Ahh!

Due to devirtualization, I had no chance to see whether or not my attempt to save Yumi had worked.


	24. Overthinking

A few seconds after I was defeated, I saw one of the Lyoko Warriors emerge from the scanners.

Odd: Ow... Never knew Yumi's fans could be so sharp.

William: Odd?

Odd: Hey, William. What's up?

Aelita had deactivated the tower and there was no need for a return to the past, so we all met back up in the lab.

William: I don't get it. How was Odd devirtualized?

Jeremie: After you were devirtualized, Yumi's fan was heading towards her, but Xana-Odd ran to fire at Aelita, got in the way and got devirtualized in the process. After that, the virus managed to create a stronger hold on his warriors.

Odd: Meaning?

Aelita: That if we tried to use the same program again, it wouldn't have any affect. Unless we find a way to increase it's power.

Franz Hopper: But that could easily take a while.

William: Figures. At least we got one Lyoko Warrior back.

Jeremie: And I'm no longer stuck on Kiwi-sitting duty.

William: Wait, isn't Kiwi Odd's pet dog?

Odd: Yeah. How did you know that?

William: Uh, a vision? Lucky guess?

As soon I as got back to my room, I remembered I had a lab report to finish. I did not get very much sleep trying to finish it. I don't even remember what my dream was, if I even got that far into the sleep cycle. It was December 4th, almost a month since Yumi disappeared, but on the bright side, we managed to save Odd and Aelita. No one ever said saving all the Lyoko Warriors was going to be easy, but at the same time, nobody told me how hard things were going to be. Now that Odd and Aelita were saved, hopefully I could get Yumi back and leave Ulrich behind. Ok, I'm going to be honest, I don't really like Ulrich. I hate him. It's not just because he's my rival, but also, he's so mean to me. He gets jealous and envious way too easily. Sometimes, I don't even understand why Yumi would like him, but anyways, back to my normal school day. By the time I got to Mrs. Fritz's class, I was pretty miserable.

Mrs. Fritz: Alright, students, hand in your lab reports. Pass them up to the front. (Sammy takes William's report and hands it to Christophe, who collects the papers and hands them to Mrs. Fritz) Your test over chemical reactions is tomorrow. It would be today if we weren't so behind, but we must do what we must do. (she passes out packets of paper) You may use the rest of the class period to work on your study guides.

She passed out our study guides for the chemical reactions, which was this big packet of six pages, not counting both front and back, full of questions that we had to answer.

William (muttering): You've gotta be kidding me. How does she expect us to answer all these questions in one night?

Mrs. Fritz: Be quiet, Dunbar. If I have to tell you this again, you get four hours of detention.

I tried to work on my packet, but unfortunately, I had difficulty concentrating. I wanted to stare off into space and daydream about Yumi, but my grade in chemistry class was slowly sinking. According to a progress report on my chemistry class, printed and given to me by Mrs. Fritz, my grade was a C minus. I hoped that my report would bring it up to C plus. The report was worth a big portion of our semester grade. I hoped I could bring my grade up with this test and the report. Soon, I began seeing visions again...

(Yumi sees William skating towards her, he accidentally crashes into her)

William: Yumi, what are you doing up so late?

Yumi: I wouldn't exactly call this being up, would you?

William: Sorry, but I was speeding to get back to the dorm. (Yumi gets up as William rises his skateboard to his shoulder) I climbed the wall to see Skybreaker 4, but it was really lame.

Yumi: The first were duds, why the big surprise?

William: Cause I'm too much of an optimist. Even when things start badly, I feel like they could get better if you give it time.

Yumi: Ok, right, but now I've gotta go.

William: Really? Where to?

Yumi: To save the world is that a good enough answer for you? Let me go, William.

William: Ok, but before I do, you gotta give me a kiss goodnight.

Yumi: Huh? Alright, but first close your eyes.

William: Great, I guess my evening wasn't a waste after all. (he closes his eyes)

I remembered this. Yumi turned her heel and ran away from me.

William: Yumi? Yumi? Yumi?!

I then recalled several events, including the bomb hidden in the Factory and after I disabled it.

William: Come on, please? I swear I won't tell anyone!

Odd: He really does deserve to be one of us. Besides, we could use another soldier.

Aelita: And he's already proven how much he can help.

Jeremie: Well then, let's vote. If everyone votes yes, then William can officially become a member of our club. (he looks through the pieces of paper) Too bad, William. There's one no.

William: You're big losers. I was kind of expecting something this might happen. (he turns towards the elevator) Some guys just can't handle being jealous. (he enters the elevator, presses a button and the door closes, leaving William alone) Goodbye Yumi. (white light engulfs the area, the scene switches to Yumi back at her house)

Yumi: Sorry, William... (she sees him skateboard past her house) But I don't think you can be trusted. (she closes the curtain and walks to her bed) He wants me to love him, but how can I even trust him?

 _Wait a second_ , I thought to myself. Yumi was the one who wouldn't let me into the group and not Ulrich like I previously thought? If Yumi didn't even trust me enough to let me join the Lyoko Warriors, how could she love me? Before I knew it, the bell rang, and I was nowhere near done with the packet or ready for tomorrow's test. Some days, it felt impossible to equally balance my school life with my personal life and with my secret double life as a Lyoko Warrior. I thought that things would get better, but instead, things seemed to get worse as time passed by. I was overthinking, as usual.


	25. Wicked Witches

Author's Notes:

-Happy almost New Year everyone! I hope you enjoy this chapter, although, of course, there's more angst! (I'm so evil!)

I was no where near ready for the chemistry test, and even worse, Priscilla kept teasing me about my crush on Yumi. For example, I'll tell you what she said right before we entered Mrs. Fritz's room.

Priscilla: Why do you continue to dream of the one girl you know you can never have?

William: Shut it, Priscilla!

Priscilla: I'm just telling you the truth. Even if Yumi ever returns, you'll never steal her heart.

She was nothing more than a wicked witch trying to crush my hopes and dreams. I knew I couldn't have Yumi, but I thought that was only because she was insane (aka-possessed by Xana.) If Yumi was here, would she try and prove Priscilla wrong? Would she try and humiliate me in front of Yumi? I asked myself so many questions, I didn't realize that the test started five minutes ago.

 _Dang it!_ I mentally shouted to myself. I tried to focus on my test, but my thoughts were scattered. With facing Xana, trying to save Yumi, all of the homework that's given to me, and everything else, I hadn't had much time to study or prepare myself for tests. By the time lunch was being served, I just sat with Sammy, and I hadn't touched my lunch at all.

Sammy: Come on William, shouldn't you eat something before gym class?

William: I would, but my appetite's been thrown out the window. (he mumbles to himself as he stirs his spoon in a bowl) Along with my hopes and dreams...

Sammy: Priscilla trying to crush your dreams again?

William: Yeah... What if she's right? What if I really have no chance with Yumi?

Sammy: You can't let those thoughts get to your head. Priscilla wants you to give up.

William: So does Mrs. Fritz... She absolutely hates me...

Sammy: Ok, then, back to the you and Yumi thing. Do you believe that she loves you or have any proof that she likes you?

William: That's the thing. It's hard to tell. Sometimes I think she may be using me to make Ulrich jealous, but other times, she seems to be a little interested in me.

Sammy: When Yumi seems to be interested in you, what does she do? Does she blush, does she hold you close? Tell me what she does.

William: Well, she smiles at me a lot. She seems to blush sometimes, but also I remember trying to kiss her at least once, maybe twice. She seemed hesitant and backed away from me. She then entered her house, leaving me all alone outside her gate.

Sammy: Hmm... My best guess is that she's uncertain how she feels about you because you're trying to sweep her off her feet. She may be scared because you're playing your cards so quickly. Or perhaps, she's in denial. Maybe you're trying to rush into things too quickly. Or possibly a combination of the above. Just something to consider. (William briefly smiles)

William: Thanks for the advice, Sam. (he frowns again) Although considering that Yumi has disappeared, I'm not sure if it will help me very much.

Sammy: Don't give up, William. Someday, you'll find a way to save her.

William: Thanks, Sammy. With Priscilla being a jerk-face, Mrs. Fritz being the worst teacher ever and everything else, it would be nice to have her back by my side.

Sammy: Uh... Will...

William: What? You know that she's the worst teacher ever. She's a wicked witch! Why did we have to get her in the first place?! She shouldn't be here! She's nosy, mean, and she always jumps to conclusions! She says I'm the one who should be expelled, but she's the one who should be fired!

Sammy: Uh, William... Behind you... (he turns and sees Mrs. Fritz, he screams and falls out of his seat)

William: Mrs. Fritz! Uh, how long have you been standing there? (he gets up)

Mrs. Fritz: Long enough to hear you rant about me. Is this what you spend your free time doing?

Priscilla: That, and daydreaming about Yumi.

William: Priscilla, stay out of this! (he turns to Mrs. Fritz) At least I have the courtesy to not say anything like this to your face.

Mrs. Fritz: Talking about others behind their backs is worse than insulting them to the face. At least in my opinion. Four hours of detention for you, Mr. Dunbar!

William: What?! Four hours?! (Priscilla snickers)

Mrs. Fritz: If you keep arguing, it'll be six. (William sighs)

That made me slip into depression again, so I skipped my lunch of beef stew with vegetables, and I regretted doing that. By the time I reached gym class, I was miserable.


	26. My Solo Mission

Later on that same day, I did weight-lifting in gym class. After a few minutes of rest, we were asked to scale the rock wall. First up, it was me VS Priscilla.

Priscilla: What's the matter, Will? Are you scared?

William: No, I'm not scared. (they get into climbing positions, Jim blows a whistle, they scale the wall, Priscilla goes devilishly fast and reaches the top before William does)

Maithas: What the?

Maitena: How is she so good at wall climbing?

Priscilla: I go rock climbing at least twice a month in the Alps. Very good practice. (William nearly reaches the top as he sees two police officers enter)

Officer 1: William Dunbar, may I speak with you?

William (muttering): Oi vey... (Priscilla kneels down and looks at William below)

Priscilla: They're probably here to arrest you for trying to kill me.

William: You're the one who tried to kill me, you wicked witch!

Officer 1: William, stop accusing your classmate and come down here.

William: Am I in trouble?

Officer 2: No.

William: Are you going to arrest me?

Officer 1: No. Why are you so afraid to come here?

William: I'm not afraid... (Priscilla grabs William's hands, and smirks at him)

Priscilla: Of course you're scared. Scared of being expelled, scared of being punished by Mrs. Fritz, and scared of losing what little good luck you have left. You've already lost Yumi, your dignity, your decent chemistry grade, and above all, you've lost your sanity. (he gasps)

William: H... How did you...? (she lets go of his hands and he falls) Ahh! (Priscilla laughs at him as he falls, he crash lands onto the mattress)

Officer 2: Come with us. (William groans as he and the police officers walk outside the gym area)

William: So, if you're not going to arrest me, what do you want with me?

Officer 1: Don't tell anyone any of this information we're about to give you. We believe that there is a thief on the grounds of Kadic Academy. This thief has stolen three items in the last month. He or she has stolen a pair of earbuds, a phone and a necklace. (he gets out a few pictures and gives them to the second police officer)

Officer 2: Here is a picture of the stolen necklace, phone and earbuds. (he gives them to William)

The picture showed a sliver heart that held a blue heart gemstone within it, all held on a silver chain. It looked very beautiful. If I could afford such nice things, I would buy it for Yumi. The earbuds were basic. They were white and in the photo, Christophe was wearing them and listening to music from his CD player. The phone was shown in someone's hand, but it was impossible to tell who held the phone based on the picture.

Officer 2: Based on the who's been in possession of the three items, we've narrowed it down to three suspects. Christophe M'Bala, who wore the earbuds, Maithas Burrel, who was seen with the phone, and the heart necklace was worn by Priscilla Blaise on November 30th, the same day I arrested David Dunlap.

William: So what do you want me to do?

Officer 1: We want you to be our undercover detective. You find out what you can about those items and how they got into the owner's possession. Takes notes and do detective work, but don't let them know that the police are onto them. And if you can, keep a close eye on them.

William: I can do that. I'll find out who that thief is.

Officer 2: Good luck, William. You're gonna need it. (they leave in their police cars, William sighs)

William: Another day, another challenge... (he walks back into the gym, Christophe beats Maithas to the top, he lets go and falls on the mattress)

Maithas (muttering): I really need more upper arm strength... I'm such a weakling.

I would have liked to assume that Priscilla was the thief right off the bat, but the police officers would scold me, especially if I had turned out to be wrong. I had a mission, and this time, I was really alone. If I dragged anyone else into this, I could put them in real danger. No one could know about this, not Jeremie, Aelita, Franz Hopper, and not even Sammy. I was all alone this time. This was my solo mission; to find the true thief hiding within these halls. I sighed.

 _How did I get myself into these crazy situations?_


	27. The Investigation Begins

After helping to deactivate a tower early in the morning, I started my investigation the next day. I decided to interview Christophe first. We were in the boys locker room and we just got into our gym clothes. We were walking towards the bleachers, as gym class would begin in about a minute.

William: Hey, Christophe, what's up?

Christophe: Nothing much. Some teachers still hate you, though.

William: That's no surprise. I meant to tell you this a while ago, but nice earbuds. Where did you get them?

Christophe: Thanks, Will. I got them from Priscilla. You see, after school one day, we got into an argument and she said that I was such an unfocused idiot because I was listening to music in class too much. But I pay attention when I need to, so I countered by saying that I got good grades, which was true. Anyway, after the argument, she broke my earbuds, so Mr. Delmas ordered her to get new ones for me.

William: Interesting...

Jim: Dunbar.

William: Here!

After school that day, I was called for a meeting in Mrs. Fritz's office. I didn't want to go, but I didn't want to ditch and get in trouble for it. So I went up to her room.

Mrs. Fritz: Ah, William, I see you have arrived. Take a seat. (he does so) Do you know why I asked you to come here?

William: Uh, no, I don't. Are you still trying to have me expelled?

Mrs. Fritz: Mr. Delmas won't allow me to expel you, so consider yourself lucky. I've just finished grading your lab reports, tests and calculating your grades. Both of these have caused your grade to fall into the abyss of failure.

William: Are you saying that I'm failing this class?

Mrs. Fritz: Sadly for you, yes. Your percentage right now is 59.2%. Not very good, Dunbar... In other news, Mrs. Campbell knows about the fire incident, and that you're failing this class. She wants to know everything that's been happening over the last few weeks.

William: Everything?

Mrs. Fritz: Everything. Well, what happened?

Was that really Mrs. Campbell's request? Or was that what Mrs. Fritz wanted to know? There was no way I could tell her about the criminal case and me being an undercover detective, or about Lyoko. Also, I was still reluctant to tell her about any of my visions, or my dreams, especially the ones with Yumi in them. I was hoping for a return to the past so that I could get myself out of this mess.

 _What do I say to her?_

William: Well, for starters, Priscilla's been very mean to me, in and outside of class, but you already know that. She keeps... teasing me and playing pranks on me. Me and Sammy are her most targeted prank victims.

Mrs. Fritz: Priscilla's a prankster? (he looks at her skeptically) What kind of pranks has she pulled on you and/or Samuel?

William: Well, there was this one time that she put a bunch of glue, orange hair dye, some twigs and a red ribbon bow in my hair and even with Sammy's help, it took hours to get it all out. This happened on a few days ago, on December 3rd.

The thing about interrogating; I hated when others interrogated me, but yet I was also asked to interrogate three different students. Priscilla being a prankster was a lie, and I could only hope that the chemistry teacher bought it. She probably didn't. After talking to Mrs. Fritz, I went back to my room, ranting about Priscilla.

William (muttering): I don't need Priscilla reminding me how I fail in my love life...

Sammy: William, are you ok?

William: Priscilla keeps reminding me on how I can't win Yumi's love, which in turn, is provoking other memories of romance failures.

Sammy: Romance failures? I thought Emily loved you, but was brutally murdered.

William: She did and she was. There's part of my back story that I never bothered to tell you.

Sammy: Well, what is it? (he sits down on the couch)

William: After moving to Nice, France, and enrolling in Cours Cyrano, I fell head over heels for Vanessa Sterling. She was the prettiest girl in Cours Cyrano, and at the time I thought she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen.

(William is shown in Cours Cyrano as a 10 year old boy, he walks into a classroom and sees a black-haired girl)

Vanessa Sterling had long black hair, which she almost always kept down. She even kept her long bangs down. Her light blue eyes went well with her pale skin. She wore a black mini skirt with black leggings and a red spaghetti strapped tank wore purple eye shadow, blush, mascara and other kinds of makeup. For accessories, she donned a silver necklace with a crescent charm, a gold band bracelet around each of her wrists, and ankle boots with three inch heels. Me, as well as several other guys, couldn't help but be a victim of her charms.


	28. I Get Backstabbed By An Ex-Best Friend

For over three years, I was trying to sweep Vanessa off her feet. I tried giving love letters to her personally, occasional gifts, poetry, but she never seemed to notice me. I thought she was too oblivious or too self-centered to notice. I thought that she might of had her heart broken and may have refused to love anyone again. Patrick Belepois, one of the many students at that school, was my best friend while I was at Cours Cyrano, and he always helped me. At least, I thought he was helping me. We were in the library one day, working on a science project. I asked him for advice on how to win Vanessa's heart.

Patrick: I have an idea for you. Create a thousand love letters and put them all over the school. She'll love it.

William: Well, ok, but creating a thousand letters is gonna take forever.

Patrick: You don't have to write a thousand letters. You just have to write one letter and copy it 999 times with the copy machine.

William: Alright. Thanks for the advice.

I noticed that Patrick smiled, but I didn't notice that he smirked. After I finished making the love letter, I created all 999 copies of it the next day. It took over four hours to create the letters, but luckily, the library was open 24 hours a day. Patrick even helped me spread all of the letters around at night. By next morning, I was sure the plan would work. Sadly, it terribly backfired on me. I was called to the office the next morning.

Mr. Sterling: You are in a lot of trouble. You put up love letters everywhere, didn't you?

William: Uh... yes? Is that a bad thing?

Mr. Sterling: My daughter, Vanessa, has complained that you pester her, stalk her and at the previous basketball game, that you cornered her and attempted to kiss her. But this? I am ashamed of you. What do you have to say for yourself?

William: Mr. Sterling... All I wanted was to sweep your daughter off her feet. I.. I love her.

Mr. Sterling: A lot of young men like her, but she's taken.

William: What?! By whom? (Patrick and Vanessa walk in)

Patrick: By me.

William: What?! But... but how could this be?! (she leans her elbow against his shoulder)

Vanessa: You don't get it, do you? I don't want the whole school to be in on my love life, so me and Patrick secretly got together over a year ago at the previous Halloween Festival. (William looks at Patrick sadly)

William: But... but your advice...

Patrick: I knew you wanted her, and she wanted you to be expelled.

Mr. Sterling: And you will be. William Dunbar, you've been expelled from Cours Cyrano.

William: What?! Oh come on! (he points to Patrick) He tricked me!

Mr. Sterling: You have an hour to pack your bags and leave the school. I'll call your parents.

I went to my room, packed my bags and waited 20 minutes for my parents to come and get me from Cours Cyrano. Note to self; Never fall in love with (and definitely don't stalk) the principal's daughter! That will get you a fork in your arm. And I don't mean the idiom that means to be defeated or to be done with something. I mean, I literally got a fork in my arm from Mr. Sterling before I left, and it was very painful.

Sarah: Willie, are you ok? Why is there a fork in your arm?

William: Long story.

James: Hold on. Oi vey... (Sarah holds William's right arm still while James pulls the fork out, William yelps in pain)

A few things about my parents that I never bothered to tell you. Their names are Sarah and James. They work as a hair stylist and an insurance agent respectively. My mom felt upset that I was tricked by my former best friend and wondered where she would send me now that I had been expelled. My dad heard about Kadic Academy, thought it was a good school, and after making sure I was ok with it, decided to send me there.

William: And I've been here ever since.

Sammy: There seems to be a running pattern here. The father of the girl you love always seems to despise you.

William: Only because they knew the truth. Yumi's dad thinks that we're just friends and nothing more. If Mr. Ishimaya knew that I loved his daughter, would he treat me with the same generosity and kindness he showed me when I was over at Yumi's house? Or would he hurt me and or try to kill me like Mr. Sterling and Mr. Dunlap did?

Sammy: I don't know.

William: Exactly. I'm worried that, if, one day, Yumi and I decide to get married, that he'll be a very disapproving father in law. (his checks his phone, grabs a journal and a pencil)

Sammy: Where are you going?

William: I'm going to the rec room. If there no Xana attacks, I should be back in about an hour.

Sammy: See ya later! (William walks out)

Going to the recreational (aka-rec) room was a lie. I was looking for the second suspect on the list; Maithas Burrel. But where was he? I asked Anais where he was and I learned that he was actually in the one place I said I was going to when I really wasn't.

Maithas: How I got my phone? That's an unusual question to ask. But if you really must know, me and Priscilla were talking about the fire incident and why she blames you for it. Thanks to a prank pulled on her by Nickolas and Herb, she accidentally stepped on my phone. She offered to replace it and she did. I have no idea how much the phone costs though.

William: Very interesting... (he writes down some notes)


	29. Everybody's Fool

I was going to interview Priscilla today, but I didn't get the chance. It was December 7th. That day... was probably one of the most shocking days of my life. We were in Mrs. Fritz's room, and the bell had rung, but class had yet to begin.

(two police officers walk into Mrs. Fritz's room)

Mrs. Fritz (to William): Finally, they're here to arrest you.

Officer 1: Sorry, but we're not here to arrest him. (William gives them some notes)

William: I know who the thief is. (the second officer rips up the notes and put the pieces in his pocket, leaving William stunned)

Officer 2: Sorry William, but you're wrong. We don't need your help anymore.

William: What?!

Officer 1: We know who stole the three items. (they walk over to the back of the room where Maithas and Priscilla are) Maithas Burrel, you're under arrest for theft. (they handcuff him, the class gasps)

Maithas: What?!

William: Are you sure he's the real criminal?

Anais: This... this can't be... (she looks at him) Maithas...

Maithas: It wasn't me, I swear!

William: Wait a second. You completely ignored my evidence and you're accusing Maithas.

Officer 1: We're not accusing him. We have proof. (he hands a photo to William)

The photo showed Maithas sleeping on his bed with all three of the objects on him. The earbuds were in his ears and plugged into the phone, which he held in his left hand. He had the necklace in his right hand. The evidence was there, but why did it seem like something was wrong with the picture? Maithas asked to see the photo so they showed it to him.

Maithas: This isn't right. I didn't have those when I went to sleep last night. (Anais takes the photo and gasps, she drops it on the ground, Priscilla then passes it to Christophe and around the classroom)

Anais: No... this... this can't be right...

Priscilla: Sorry to burst your bubble, sweetie, but your best friend is a no good criminal. You can't trust him.

Officer 1: We better put him where he belongs; Behind bars. (Anais gasps)

Officer 2: Christophe, your earbuds. (he hands them back to him) Priscilla, your necklace. (he gives it back to her) Let's get this little rat behind bars! (they drag Maithas away)

Maithas: But I'm innocent, I tell you, innocent!

Officer 1: That's what they all say. (they leave, shutting the door, Anais starts silently crying)

Mrs. Fritz (muttering): Well, that's slightly disappointing. (in clear voice) Now onto today's lecture notes.

After Maithas was arrested, Anais was very upset throughout most of the day. Most of the time she was either crying, staring off into space, or saying something along the lines of, "How could he be evil?" She was devastated. I didn't see her at lunch, and about 6:20pm, I saw her outside the cafeteria, skipping dinner, just like I was. Only difference was that she was sobbing.

William: Anais? Are you ok?

Anais: I'm still shocked that Maithas is a thief. I knew he stole one thing, but I never thought he stole the necklace, phone or the earbuds.

William: I was asked to try and find the thief. From what had gathered, Priscilla was the thief. But... it seems like she's been innocent this whole time. A mean, cruel jerk, but not a criminal. Wait a second, when you said that he stole at least one thing, what do you mean?

Anais: Can you keep a secret?

William: Sure, what is it?

Anais: Maithas... He... he stole my heart. I'm in love with him. (she sobs even more, her phone plays music)

I recognized the instrumental and the song from anywhere. The song was by Evanescence, and the song was called Everybody's Fool.

 _Perfect by nature, icons of self-indulgence. Just what we all need. More lies about a world that never was and never will be. Have you no shame, don't you see me? You know you've got everybody fooled._

As I listened to the music playing from her phone, I payed attention to the lyrics.

 _Look here she comes now. Bow down and stare in wonder. Oh, how we love you. No flaws when you're pretending... But now I know she never was and never will be, you don't know how you betrayed me, and somehow you've got everybody fooled._

Did these lyrics apply to Priscilla?

 _Without the mask, where will you hide? Can't find yourself, lost in your lie... I know the truth now, I know who you are, and I don't love you anymore. It never was and never will be, you don't know how you've betrayed me. And somehow you've got everybody fooled. It never was and never will be, you're not real and you can't save me. And somehow now, you're everybody's fool..._

William: Something tells me that this isn't what it seems...

Anais: What do you mean?

William: I'm going to find out what's really going on... (he gets up and starts running)

I had to figure this out, before it became too late.


	30. I Should Have Known It Was All a Lie

I went to the bench and meditated. I knew I didn't have much power over those visions, but maybe, if I meditated long enough, I'd find the truth about what I what to know. Eventually, I found it, but it was more malevolent than I had previously thought.

(a blue cloaked figure is seen carrying a few items in their hands and tiptoeing through the dark halls, they find Maithas's room, the figure slowly enters, they plug in the earbuds into the phone, puts the earbuds in his ears and a phone in his left hand, they give him the necklace and put it in his left hand, they take a picture of Maithas with a camera, it prints out the picture, the figure puts the items in his backpack, leaves the room with the camera and picture, puts it into an envelope, puts it into the mailbox, the police department workers open the envelope and gasp, back to the figure who sneaks back into their room)

Figure: Too close... Phew... That was no easy task. (they close the door to their dorm) Now that everything's been set in place, they'll never find the real criminal. That William thinks he can prove I'm a criminal. (she laughs) He'll never catch me. (the figure removes the cloak, revealing short black hair, dark brown eyes, and a red nightgown) Say goodbye to your freedom, Maithas. (she quietly chuckles)

That no good, evil crook! I knew it was Priscilla Blaise this whole time! The vision ended, leaving me furious. I had to find Anais and tell her what I saw.

(William knocks on a door)

Anais (off-screen): Come in... (William walks in) William, what are you doing here?

William: Anais, I know it may sound crazy, but Maithas isn't the true thief. Priscilla is. (she looks at him strangely)

Anais: What do you mean?

I told her everything I saw in my vision (proclaiming that it was a dream) and she was furious.

Anais: I should have known it was all a lie! That skunk-bag! We have to make things right and prove Maithas is innocent, but how?

William: I have an idea.

We were outside of Priscilla's room. She had her door closed and hummed Poor Unfortunate Souls to herself.

William: Here's the plan. You'll go in and... (Priscilla opens the door, sees them and looks at them strangely)

Priscilla: William, Anais, what are you doing here?

Without even thinking about it, I went towards Plan B.

William: We know that you framed Maithas! (he points at her) You put the objects into his possession in the middle of the night and showed the "evidence" to the cops to get them off your back! It was you this whole time! (she drags them in, closes her door and locks it)

Priscilla: I don't know how you saw through my ruse, but you won't escape to tell them to truth.

Anais: I thought I could trust you... You betrayed us all! You are so evil! (she charges towards Priscilla at the same time William does, she knocks down William by tripping him with one of her legs then kicks him into the wall, she punches Anais in the face, knocking her back a few feet away from her, she charges towards Priscilla, William's phone vibrates)

William: Oi vey... Who could it be at this hour? (he sees the caller and denies the call)

The caller was my dad, but when you're fighting a crazy, evil, lying thief, you don't have much time to be answering phone calls.

(William kicks Priscilla down, she throws a smoke bomb, Anais and William cough, Anais screams, a window is opened, the smoke fades and Anais is shown with her ankles bound by rope and handcuffed, William gasps and Priscilla trips him, she closes the window, locks it and shuts the curtains, then looks at down at him)

Priscilla: Fools! Did you really think you could stop me?

William: Uh, yeah. Your intentions have been bad from the very beginning!

Priscilla: You don't know much about me, do you? I'm an expert when it comes to being a criminal. I frame others, cause them to be blamed for all the chaos I do and never get caught. I wanted to set the science wing on fire and have William be blamed for it. Likewise, I framed Maithas for the theft of those three objects, even throwing in my own stolen necklace to make it look more convincing.

Anais: I.. I don't understand...Why would you cause so much chaos and trouble for others?

Priscilla: It's a long backstory about how my sisters mistreated me. (she scoffs) You wouldn't care or understand. Someday, this city will be mine, and they'll all pay for what they did!

William: I won't let you get away with this! (he charges towards Priscilla and his phone vibrates again, he knocks her down) Who is it this time? (he picks up his phone and barely dodges a punch to the face) Hello?

Sammy (on-phone): William, where are you?

William: Sammy, you were definitely right about Priscilla. Call the police, tell them that Maithas is innocent and... (she kicks William down and takes his phone)

Sammy (on-phone): William, what's going on?! William?! (she takes William's phone, throws it to the ground and steps on it with her foot, crushing it)

Priscilla: You're all alone, William. You may of found out the truth, but you'll never escape to tell the true story. (she reaches in her purse and pulls out a facón dagger)

Anais: You wouldn't...

Priscilla: Sorry William, but there's no way I can let you live. You know too much about who I really am.

Anais: Priscilla, no! (Priscilla charges towards William with her dagger in hand)


	31. Surrender

Priscilla had wrecked my phone and Anais was still tied up, so I was on my own. How was it that I managed to get myself into these kinds of situations? As usual, I didn't have any time to think of a logical answer. Priscilla quickly charged at me, attempting to kill me.

(William quickly dodges Priscilla's blade)

William: Priscilla, have you lost your mind?

Priscilla: So what if I'm insane? I can sense madness in you as well.

William: Huh? (she strikes William in the back with her blade and kicks him down)

Anais: William!

Immediately after she literally stabbed me in the back, I began to feel weak. She didn't cut extremely deep, but the cut stretched all across my back. The area where she stabbed me felt like it was on fire. A sharp, shooting pain all over my body. It took a lot of willpower to not faint. If I fainted, I'd probably die. I forced myself to get up. My head throbbed in agony. Priscilla laughed in a sinister manner.

Priscilla: Surrender William. You'll never survive. (she puts her knife on the counter)

Xana (off-screen): Listen to her... You'll never live. You think you can be a hero. Ha! You're nothing but a lost cause. Give in William... Close your eyes and let death take you away...

William: Huh?

Xana (off-screen): You're nothing but a lost cause, William Dunbar...

William: No... I'm not a lost cause.

Xana (off-screen): Give it up... Give in... Surrender. You'll never save her...

I had lost my mind. Was Xana really speaking to me, or was I hallucinating? I charged at Priscilla, trying to fight her. Unfortunately, my injury was becoming a major disadvantage.

(William tries to kick Priscilla down, Anais cringes and closes her eyes as William barely dodges, he tries to punch her, but she kicks him down)

Xana (off-screen)/Priscilla: Give it up... Surrender...

Priscilla wasn't being possessed by Xana, but I heard both of their voices speaking at the same time. Why was I hearing both voices if she wasn't possessed? Was I losing my mind? Had I already lost my mind? Was Xana watching the battle from afar and whispering into my ear? Were all of the above true?

Yumi (voice): William... You can't surrender... Remember what you're fighting for!

I knew for certain I was hallucinating that time, but Yumi was right. I had to remember my motivation. I was fighting to save Yumi from Xana's control. I was fighting to save Anais from Priscilla, prove that the latter was the real criminal instead of Maithas, and to protect the innocent civilians of Kadic Academy.

William: I'll never let you win, Priscilla! (he gets up and punches Priscilla, a pounding is heard on the other side of the door)

Officer 3 (off-screen): Hey! (the knocking continues) Open up! We know you're in there!

William: You won't get away with this, Priscilla!

Sammy (off-screen): William, are you ok?!

William: Could be better! (Priscilla punches him in the face, he groans) Priscilla wrecked my mobile and stabbed me in the back! Literally!

Maithas (off-screen): Anais, are you ok?! Anais?!

Anais: Maithas, you guys have to stop Priscilla before she murders William! And possibly me as well! (Priscilla kicks William down)

Officer 3 (off-screen): Open up in the name of the law!

There had to be something I could use to defeat Priscilla. She grabbed her dagger and charged at me again. I grabbed some nearby rope used it to lasso her arm. I then threw the knife so that it stuck to her wall to get it away from her. Dangerous and impulsive, yes, but I had lost all sense of sanity. I let rage empower me and tried to ignore the pain in my back. I had no idea if Xana was watching me now, but if he was, he was about to be proven wrong.

William: You jerk! I knew you were evil this whole time! (he kicks her down, ties the rope around her wrists, she kicks him in the stomach, but he ties the rope around her arms and kicks her down, the police manage to get the door open, the three officers, Sammy and Maithas run in)

Sammy: William? Oh gosh, you're bleeding! Here, take your shirt off... (he does so)

Maithas: Anais, you're ok! (he begins to untie the ropes around her feet and gets off her handcuffs as the officers grab and apprehend Priscilla)

Officer 3: Priscilla Blaise, you're under arrest for theft, framing Maithas Burrel, attempted murder of William Dunbar and the kidnapping of Anais Fiquet.

William: Officers, if you don't mind me asking, how did you know Maithas was innocent and that you had the wrong suspect?

Officer 3: It's simple. (she gets out a note that was taped together)


	32. Her Last Lie

As Sammy tended to my injuries, the third police officer explained how she figured everything out.

Officer 3: After my fellow police officers arrested Maithas, I asked them if they even bothered to look at William's notes. They didn't look at the notes,and instead tore them up. Luckily they saved the pieces, so with some tape and determination, I pieced together his notes and realized who the real criminal was. Not only that, I realized the fingerprints on the letter with the photo of Maithas with the items weren't Maithas', and were actually Priscilla's. Priscilla had been arrested and thrown into a juvenile detention center for stealing a couple's wedding rings in middle school. I told them who it really was and told them to release Maithas. One went to release him, while the other answered the phone. Your friend Sammy told us that Priscilla was the true criminal and that William was in danger. We grabbed an emergency care kit and the four of us raced to Kadic to try and stop Priscilla before she did any major damage. Now William, tell us what happened.

I explained what happened, and indirectly referred to Xana and Yumi as voices in my head from a hallucination. Next was Priscilla, then Anais, and finally Maithas spoke.

Maithas: Anais, I'm rather surprised that you teamed up with William to fight against Priscilla.

Anais: I was releasing anger that had slowly built up over so many years. When William told me of her deception, I couldn't hide my rage anymore... I just couldn't stand to hide how I truly felt... (she throws her arms around Maithas's neck)

Maithas: A...Anais? (she begins to cry a little)

Anais: Maithas... I love you... (she sobs, Maithas puts his arms around her, William and Sammy smile)

Maithas: Anais, I love you too. I've always loved you.

Officer 1: Aw, how sweet...

Officer 2: We better get this criminal behind bars so that she doesn't cause any more trouble.

Priscilla: You'll never win, William! (they begin to drag her away) You'll never steal Yumi's heart because she's already taken by Ulrich!

William: You liar! You're just saying that to break my spirit!

Priscilla: I'm not lying! When Yumi and Ulrich return, you'll see the truth! She'll never love you William! Never! (they drag her out of sight)

Officer 2: You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you...

As the officers explained the Miranda Rights to Priscilla while taking her away, I briefly pondered over her words. Yumi and Ulrich, a romantic couple? That couldn't be...

Sammy: She's lying Will.

William: You're right, Sammy. There's no way she could of been telling the truth. Not this time, anyway. (Jeremie runs up to William as he puts on a sleeveless top)

Jeremie: William, there you are. Me and Aelita have been looking all over for you. We tried to call, but you didn't answer.

William: Sorry about that. Priscilla wrecked my phone during a nasty duel.

Jeremie: Nasty duel? What happened?

William: It's a long story. Any news to report?

Jeremie: Remember that computer program that needed an increase in power? We've finished it and we can use it sometime in the near future.

William: That's great. (yawns) But not tonight. I'm exhausted.

Sammy: Get some sleep, William. You need rest.

I fell face-first onto my bed and ended up oversleeping that day. Sammy had forgotten to wake me up because he got up so early. At the end of the day, he came back with all the homework that was assigned to me.

William: So, what did you tell them?

Sammy: I told them that you were in the Infirmary recovering from last nights injuries.

William: And every teacher bought it?

Sammy: Oh yeah. Word about the Priscilla being evil scandal spread around the school like wildfire. Milly and Tamiya even wrote about in their most recent journal. (he gives William an issue of the _Kadic News_ )

William: _"Priscilla VS William: Clash of the Century"_. Hmm... Looks interesting.

After reading the newspaper, I got started on the massive pile of homework. After about 45 minutes, I heard a knock on the door.

William: Come in. (the second officer walks in)

Officer 2: Package delivery for Dunbar, William.

William: That's me.

Officer 2: Sign here. And here. (he does so) Some of these items are awards for helping us. One of them is the new phone to replace the one Priscilla broke, and there's also a note that's addressed to you.

William: Ok then. Thanks.

Officer 2: You're welcome, and thank you, Mr. Dunbar. If it wasn't for you, Maithas would be the one behind bars instead of Priscilla. (he leaves, William puts the box on his door, he takes out a $50 bill, a phone, and a necklace)

Sammy: Isn't that the necklace Priscilla stole?

William: Yes it is. I'm guessing this is another way of saying thanks. (he takes the letter)

Sammy: What does the letter say?

William: It says,

 _"Dear William, I know you must be busy with school life, but we're getting worried. Sarah, your mother, is worried that Kadic Academy may be unsafe for you. We've heard rumors about there being a fire incident that you were involved in. We've also heard that there's a thief on the grounds of Kadic. When Sarah tried to call you, you didn't answer. When I tried calling you a few days later, you declined. We're worried about you. We don't know what's going on. And we've heard from Mrs. Fritz that you're failing chemistry class. Is this true? Please, if you have received this letter, respond to it as soon as possible. We just want to know if you're ok._

 _From your loving dad, James."_

Oh dang, my parents are actually worried about me...

Sammy: You haven't contacted them much, have you? (William sighs)

William: Me and my parents have been disconnected with distant relatives for a while, but now I'm disconnected from my own parents? I feel ashamed. (William starts getting out a pencil and paper and slowly begins to write) I know I can't tell them everything, but they should at least know the basics.


	33. Specters and Other Troubles

That evening, after finishing my homework, I had finally finished my response to my parents letter. I wrote,

 _Dear Mom and Dad,_

 _I'm sorry about not being able to contact you. I've been very busy with school and personal troubles. It's a long story, but I'll have to start from the beginning. November 8th, 2006. It was on that day that Yumi and her friends had lost their minds, tried to attack us and were escorted to an unknown mental hospital. Sometime before I got to 4th period the next day, Mrs. Campbell, my chemistry teacher, went into a preterm labor. Because of this, they had to find a replacement and fast. The only replacement teacher they could find was a woman named Selena Fritz. As you know, chemistry was already difficult, and having her in charge of the class was not helping. She hates my guts._  
 _Now, about the fire incident. Mrs. Fritz was getting tired of me and Priscilla fighting all the time, so she forced us to be lab partners. Priscilla wanted me to put an unstable sodium chloride solution into the vial of water and have me be blamed for it. When I refused, she tried to do it herself, we wrestled over the vial, which flew into the air, cracked, spilled liquid into several vials of water, knocked out Anais and caused a fire that consumed the science building. Luckily, me and Maithas managed to save her, but because of the fire incident, and getting into a fight with my lab partner afterwards, I ended up in a lot of trouble. Six hours of detention the following night. Mom, when you called, my roommate, Sammy, was asleep. Later on, the police department asked me to find out who the thief on Kadic was. There were three suspects they wanted me to interview. Their names were Christophe, Maithas and Priscilla. I did my research, and I believed that Priscilla was the criminal, but when the officers arrested Maithas, the entire class was shocked. They ignored my evidence, saying they had proof of Maithas being the real criminal._

 _Later on, I learned that I was right about her, and after I told Anais that Priscilla framed Maithas, she was furious and we teamed up to take her down. Priscilla tied up Anais after throwing a smoke bomb, and revealed that she framed Maithas and wanted me to be blamed for the destruction of the science wing. Dad, you ended up calling me while I was fighting her, and when you're battling a crazy evil lying thief, you don't have much time to answer phone calls. After Priscilla revealed her plans, Sammy then called me, asking me where I was. I tried to tell him to call the police, but before I finished my commands, Priscilla destroyed my phone. She attempted to murder me. She literally back-stabbed me, and I started hallucinating, hearing an evil voice telling me to give up. But thanks to another voice, I remembered why I was fighting and found the strength to defeat her. Eventually, the police managed to get the door unlocked. Sammy tended to my injuries, Maithas freed Anais, and Priscilla was arrested. I have recently got a new phone, but I can't remember either of your numbers, so if you could write them in your response to this letter, I'd be happy to tell you about how peaceful things are at Kadic now that the true thief has been caught. I'm sorry for scaring you and keeping you in the dark, but everything's alright now. I promise.  
_

 _Your son, William Dunbar._

I put the letter into an envelope, put a stamp on it, and took it to the nearest mailbox. I sighed as I walked back to the dorm. The last two words weren't entirely true. Yumi and my most despised rival Ulrich were still under the control of Xana, but how could I tell them? I couldn't. As I was about to cross the street, Priscilla's words came to hunt me again.

 _"You'll never steal Yumi's heart because she's already taken by Ulrich!"_

 _"She'll never love you William! Never!"_

I didn't notice the lights changing from a red stop hand sign to a white walking sign. I ran across and continued to my dorm room.

William: Xana seems quiet... Too quiet...

Sammy: I don't know why Xana would be so quiet...

William: Maybe he's trying to think of ways to kill me.

Sammy: Are you sure he wants to kill you?

William: Only 99%. (he hears screaming) Oh dear. (he looks out the window, a specter of Ulrich is shown attacking 10th graders)

Sammy: Is that.. Ulrich?

William: No, it's a specter of him. (William's phone rings, he answers it) Hello?

Jeremie (on phone): William, we've got trouble. Xana's activated another tower.

William: Yeah, I noticed. He created a copy of Ulrich and he's attacking my classmates!

Jeremie (on phone): Get to the Factory, pronto!

William: I'm on it. (he hangs up)

I then tried to get to the Factory, but the specter of Ulrich shocked me and threw me into the science building. Since the fire incident, the staff of Kadic hired a construction crew to work on restoring the upper three floors of the science building. Even though they worked day and night, it would take months, maybe even years to repair the entire building. Right now, they were off taking a ten minute bathroom break. Good thing, because the specter was causing a lot of trouble. Specter Ulrich held Sammy by his throat and looked at me in the eyes.

Specter Ulrich: If you value his life, don't you dare take another step back. (William stands there)

Sammy: William, it's a trap...

Specter Ulrich: If you want your friend to live, then you will face me. (William's phone vibrates, he picks it up)

William: You picked a bad time to make a phone call.

Jeremie (on phone): Why, what's wrong?

William: If I don't fight Specter-Ulrich, he'll destroy Sammy. (the specter takes his phone using his will and smashes it in air)

 _Dang it, I just got that replaced!_ I thought to myself. Then again, at the moment, my broken phone was the least of my problems.

William: I'm not running, Xana!

Specter Ulrich: Perfect. (he throws Sammy aside into the wall and charges towards William)


	34. For Real

If I wanted to save Sammy, which I did, I had no choice but to fight the specter of Ulrich.

(Specter Ulrich charges towards William at supersonic speed, William barely dodges his fist)

Sammy: Oh dear... (William tries to punch Specter-Ulrich's face, but he quickly dodges and kicks William down, he gets up and punches Specter-Ulrich only for him to pixelize and not feel any harm)

William: Huh? (Specter-Ulrich punches him in the face, knocking out one of his teeth) Ow...

Okay, fighting specters is a lot harder than it looks. I had no idea how long I was going to have to fight against this phony impostor, or how to defeat him until a return to the past was launched, but I couldn't give up. My best friend's life was on the line.

(William gets up, tries to kick Ulrich, but he dodges and throws a purple lightning bolt at him, he barely dodges)

Anais (muttering): Well, this is new...

I took a brief glance and saw that other 10th graders and various students were watching the fight. Maithas and Anais were worried. Christophe and Emmanuel were scared out of their minds. Basically every one was scared. Nonetheless, I continued to fight the specter.

(William gets up after being knocked down by lightning bolts, Specter-Ulrich suddenly disappears, the students gasp)

Sammy: William, what happened? Why did he disappear?

William: Aelita managed to deactivate the tower. The specter is gone. And soon, we'll go back in time. (he sees a white light)

Soon, a white light engulfed us and we were back in my room. We stayed silent for a few moments.

Sammy: Looks like it sent us back to when you finished your letter.

William: Yep. I better send this to my parents. Again...

I took my letter to the nearest post office for the second time, and went back to my room. Later that evening, I found a note on my desk.

William: Hmm. What is this? (he opens up the note)

 _"Dear William, I can't thank you enough for helping to expose Priscilla and reunite me and Maithas. If you wish to join us, me and Maithas will be over at the pizzeria at 6pm to celebrate Priscilla's downfall. If you wish,_ _you may also bring a friend. Me and Maithas will pay for it all, so if you want to, come and join us for pizza._

 _Your friend, Anais."_

(he looks towards Sammy) Got any plans for tonight?

Sammy: No, why?

The two of us met them at the pizzeria, arriving ten minutes before they did. Eventually, we got a table outside and ordered a large pepperoni pizza.

Maithas: I'm rather surprised you didn't bring a date here.

William: If Yumi was here, I'd ask her to come, but sadly, she's still insane.

Sammy: It's too bad the doctors haven't found a way to restore her sanity.

Anais: It is a shame. Yumi was a good girl who didn't deserve it.

William: Agreed. At least Priscilla is gone. (the waiter sets a few glasses down, they grab their respective drinks) I propose a toast. (he raises a glass of red cream soda) To the fall of Priscilla Blaise! (the other three raise their glasses of soda, they clink glasses)

Sammy, Anais and Maithas: To her downfall. (they take a few sips)

Voice: You seem to be in an awfully good mood. (William turns around and does a spit-take)

William: Ulrich?

Is this him, Ulrich Stern, my worst rival, standing right in front of me? For real?

Ulrich: Hey William. I thought you'd be upset to see me.

Sammy: This... this has to be a trick. Isn't he still insane? (William stares into his brown eyes)

William: It's the real deal alright. My old enemy in the flesh.

Ulrich: Didn't Jeremie send you a message saying that the doctors cured me?

William: I don't think so. Let me look. (he looks on his phone and sees a text message that reads, _"Good news. Ulrich is free from Xana's possession. Sorry we couldn't save Yumi."_ ) Oh, I never bothered to read it. Crud...

Anais: He's not another criminal, is he?

William: I could say many truthful bad things about him, but I can not say that he's a criminal. Then I'd be lying.

Maithas: So, you just don't like him.

William: Not really no.

Sammy: How can you tell it's the real Ulrich?

William (whispering): If he has the symbol of Xana in his eyes and/or on his forehead, the person is either a specter or possessed by Xana.

Sammy (whispering): Good to know. (Ulrich looks at William with a raised eyebrow, then returns to normal)

Ulrich: Well, I'll get out of your hair, but before I do, I'll give you a warning; Stay away from Yumi when she returns. (he walks away)

I was a little bit confused by his words, but I tried to dismiss the odd feeling. I enjoyed the pizza with my friends and had a good time. It had been quite a while since I had the chance to relax like this.


	35. I Hate This Part

It was January 4th, 2007. It had been nearly two months since Yumi was captured by the Scyphozoa and possessed by Xana. To be honest, I didn't think I'd last this long with all of the troubles I had been through in about the last two months. Now that we had more of our allies back, we started working on other tasks. We created a digital submarine called the Skidbladnir, or the Skid, for short. We explored replikas, or copies of Lyoko with only a single sector, and trying to find a way to strengthen the virus program so we could get Yumi back. Aelita was the one piloting the skid, while Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich and me were in our own Navi-Skids. There was a sixth slot, which was for Yumi, but of course, she was still under Xana's control. Xana's attacks became more frequent. We landed on a replika of the Forest Sector. Aelita and Jeremie went off to a research facility in New Mexico, while the three of us were stuck guarding the skid. Due to the fact that we were standing around and weren't fighting anyone or anything, I was lost in my own thoughts.

Priscilla: You'll never steal Yumi's heart because she's already taken by Ulrich!

(the scene fast-forwards to William and Sissi in the gym, Sissi is sitting on the bleachers reading a book)

William: Sissi, what are you doing here? (she puts a pink bookmark in her novel before setting down the book)

Sissi: I was just about to ask you the same thing. I was looking for a place to be alone.

William: I don't mind you being here. I guess I can just leave you be.

Sissi: Thanks. Ever since Ulrich had disappeared, I had been rather upset with the turn of events. (mutters) I miss him...

William: Speaking of Ulrich, do you think he and Yumi are in a romantic entanglement?

Sissi: I doubt that's the case. If they were an item, they would of told everyone to get me off Ulrich's back.

William: Thanks, Sissi. I knew Priscilla was nothing more than a liar.

Sissi: Priscilla wasn't just a liar. She was an evil criminal. (Sissi picks up her book, William walks away, the flashback ends)

Odd: You ok, William? You haven't said anything in a while.

Odd and Ulrich both had updated Lyoko outfits that weren't their Xana uniforms. Of course, Ulrich still had two swords, making him a most formidable foe.

William: Yes, I'm fine. I was just having a few flashbacks.

Ulrich: Flashbacks? Of what?

William: All of the challenges I've been put through since the original four Lyoko Warriors were captured by the Scyphozoa.

Odd: Challenges? Like what?

William: Well, the first problem was... (a laser is fired at William, hitting him in the shoulder)

Ulrich: First problem, we got some Creepers and Krabs coming towards us at ten o'clock.

(Creepers and Krabs continue to fire their lasers, William lifts his swords and summons his sword while Odd fires Laser Arrows at the Krabs, only for him to miss, Ulrich slices off the legs of a Krab with his two katana, William defeats four Creepers by swinging his sword around)

William (muttering): At least it's not the Tarantulas. (Odd shoots Laser Arrows at the remaining two creepers, devirtualizing them, he is surrounded by purple energy and is levitated towards a Krab)

Odd: Hey, what's going on? (he is guided under the leg of a Krab, where he is impaled and devirtualized) Ahh! (Xana-Yumi appears, smirking and laughing at them)

Xana-Yumi: Hello boys. Miss me? (Ulrich gulps)

William: Aw man, I hate this part.

Ulrich: The part where you have to fight Yumi under Xana's control?

William: Exactly. (he gets out his sword) Alright Yumi, if you want me, come and get me. (Xana-Yumi throws her fans at them, they dodge and she lifts her hands, disarming William, she charges towards Ulrich with William's sword and he struggles to hold her back with his swords in a x-position)

Franz Hopper (off-screen): We got bad news guys. Jeremie and Aelita failed to complete the mission.

Ulrich: What?! (Xana-Yumi swings William's sword at Ulrich, dropping it after he devirtualizes, William summons it to him)

Franz Hopper (off-screen): They're both unconscious in the Skid.

William: Oi vey... What else is new? (Xana-Yumi smirks and throws her fans towards him, he barely dodges) I know I've said it a million times, but I hate having to fight like you this.

Xana-Yumi: Really? You're not even hesitant to fight me anymore. (she throws her fans at him, he blocks them with his sword, he charges towards Yumi, but she kicks him down, takes his sword with his telekinesis and throws it towards the Digital Sea, she then throws a fan at him, causing him to fall backwards and hang to the edge, but he barely hangs on) Give it up, little hero. You'll never see the old me again!


	36. I Love You

I held on the edge of the cliff and tried to pull myself up. Xana-Yumi rose into the air and was about to throw her fans at me again.

William: Yumi... (he gets his feet back on the ground) Don't do this... (Xana-Yumi scoffs)

Xana-Yumi: You're not hesitant to even fight me anymore.

William: Just because I'm not hesitant to fight you doesn't mean that I want to duel you. (she prepares to throw her fans at him, and throws one at him, he swiftly dodges one, then the other) Yumi, I... I love you! (Xana-Yumi widens her eyes as her fans return to her) Yumi, I don't know if you can hear me, but I know that the real you isn't gone! Try and break free! (Xana-Yumi groans, she screams in pain, she forces a black shadow out of her, and faints in mid-air) Yumi! (he uses Super-Sprint as she falls, and catches her in his arms) Yumi? (she moans) Yumi? (she slowly opens her eyes, she looks up at him)

Yumi: Will.. William?

William: Yes, Yumi, it's me. (he sets her down, and helps her up, then throws his arms around her)

Yumi: You really missed me, didn't you?

William: Missing you is an understatement. (he lets go of her) I was going insane knowing you were under Xana's control. Yumi... I know that I may not be good enough for you, and that I can't replace Ulrich, but before you turn me down, hear me out. After you were captured and possessed, I've been put through several challenges. Due to all this pressure, I was highly tempted, and even tried once, to give up on life. But I didn't. (he looks into her eyes) Yumi, you are the primary, if not, the only reason I continued to fight against Xana in spite of every trial and tribulation. (Yumi gasps)

Yumi: I... I am?

William: Yumi, you mean everything to me. (he softly takes her right wrist and puts his right arm around her back) I love you, my dear sweet... Yumi. (he kisses her)

I didn't know what I was thinking, if anything. I desired her. I yearned for her. I needed her, because I loved her. But she didn't like me back. Was I just too dumb? Too desperate? Too confident? Too cocky? All of the above? Maybe, but that didn't change anything. To be honest, I thought that Yumi would reject me, push me away, try and break free from my grasp, or worst case scenario, she would purposely devirtualize me. But she didn't do any of those things. After about 10 seconds, she kissed me back with a passion I never knew she had. I put my arms around her waist and she threw her arms around my neck. We were capturing each other, her breath mixed with mine. I still couldn't believe this. As I captured her lips, had I captured her heart as well?

(William breaks the kiss and looks into Yumi's eyes)

William: Yumi... Do you love me?

Yumi: William... Normally I wouldn't admit it to anyone, including myself, but, yes. (she puts her hands in his hair) I'm truly, madly and deeply in love with you.

William: Were you in denial this whole time? (they take a few steps back)

Yumi: Perhaps. When I first met you, I was in love with Ulrich. I wanted him to tell me how he really felt about me. He was so slow, and you were going so fast. You tried to sweep me off my feet and I was... I was a little scared. Because of my own feelings for Ulrich, I tried to dismiss any romantic attraction to you. I couldn't deny that you were, and still are, a very handsome young man, and a very good friend. I'm not sure if you knew this, but while me and the others were under Xana's control, he kept us aware of everything that was going on.

William: So you not only remember the confession, but how I closed my eyes and had to devirtualize you for the first time?

Yumi: I remember everything. And while I was under Xana's control, something told me that you were going to be the one to save me. I love you William. (she closes her eyes and leans in to kiss him, he does the same)

As good as things were, this almost seemed too good. Yumi was free at last and she was finally mine...

(Yumi is dragged by the ankle by a black energy cord, she screams)

William: Yumi! (he runs after her, using Super-Sprint, he grabs her hand before she gets sucked into a black vortex of energy)

Yumi: What the heck is happening?!

William: I don't know! Mr. Hopper, we got a big problem!

Voice: Indeed you do. You've been meddling in my plans too much. (a shadow appears in front of them) Hello Yumi, remember me?

William/Yumi: Xana...


	37. My Achilles' Heel

Just when I thought all the trials were over, I was mistaken. Holding onto Yumi's hand, I turned to face Xana. He was no longer wearing a black cloak, but he was wearing a warrior uniform. It was actually similar to mine, but a lot darker with Xana's symbol on the chest. He wore black combat boots with spikes near the heel. This guy's appearance seemed to haunt me for some reason, but why, I had no idea. I glared at him with fire in my eyes.

William: What more do you want from me?

Xana: Oh William, the persevering optimist. You've thrown several wrenches into my plans. You know that I've been trying to destroy you from the beginning, right?

William (sarcastically): Really? What a surprise.

Xana: You don't know the half of it. Every attempt to kill you has gone down in vain! (he snaps his fingers, a black smoke screen appears and an image of Mrs. Fritz loads on it, it is dark and rainy out, she carries a black umbrella)

Mrs. Fritz: Well then. I better get moving. A strange voice may have told me to be here, but if they need me, I better get going. (she walks into Kadic)

Xana: I'm the reason you got stuck with Mrs. Fritz, that terrible substitute chemistry teacher. (the scene switches to William sleeping on the bench, a possessed Mrs. Fritz is shown with a knife, she chuckles to herself, Anais is walking around and she finds William)

Anais: Oh dear... That poor young man... Better get him back to his room. (she picks him up and carries him over her shoulders, she walks away with him)

Xana-Mrs. Fritz: Curses...

(the screen shows David walking around the neighborhood)

David: That accursed William Dunbar. If only I knew where to find him. (a woman with the eye of Xana in her eyes walks up to him) If only I knew where he was...

Woman: I know where he is. Go to Kadic Academy, located in Paris, France. Here's some directions. (she hands a slip of paper to him) You can finally set revenge on him.

David: Thanks for the directions. I will get my revenge! (the woman smiles wickedly, William and Yumi gasp)

Xana: It wasn't just chance that David Dunlap found you and tried to terminate you.

(the screen shows William and Priscilla fighting over the vial)

William: If you add that in, it'll cause a fire!

Mrs. Fritz: William, Priscilla, stop this at once! (he pulls it away from Priscilla, the footage is slowed down as it is launched into the air)

Xana: It wasn't just a mere coincidence that the vial broke and started a fire. (the vial breaks, leaking the chemical into several vials of water, fires ignite and the vial lands nearby Anais, causing an explosion and knocking her out, the slow motion stops and the image switches to William taking all the aspirin pills and fainting, Aelita dials 911, it switches to William fighting the Specter of Ulrich, the slideshow ends, the screen disappears, Xana scowls)

Xana: You were supposed to be dead a long time ago. Yet somehow, you still escape death's grip. I wondered why you continued to fight despite every tough trial and tribulation you've been put through. (he smirks) Now everything is clear. Not only have I found your motivation, I've found your Achilles' heel as well.

Yumi: Huh? (she and William look at her left ankle, caught in Xana's shadow rope) Oh no...

We both came to the terrible realization at the same time; Yumi was my weakness.

Xana: As soon as I dispatch her, you'll have no reason to fight me anymore.

William: I can't believe you would try and suck her into a vortex of death just to break me!

Xana: Oh, I'm not going to kill her yet. She'll be kept alive... For now at least.

Yumi: For now? (she quietly gulps, William desperately tries to free her)

Xana: Give it up. You're never going to free her.

William: Never! I'll never give in! Never! (Xana forms a black energy beam)

Xana (sarcastically): Aw, how cute. Who would tear these two lovestruck warriors apart? (he charges with black energy) I would! Sorry William, but when I'm through with you, happy ever after will be a thing of the past! Say goodnight, Dunbar! (he fires black lightning bolts at him, William falls backwards and begins to devirtualize)

Yumi/William: William!/ Yumi! (Xana laughs and disappears in shadows as William devirtualizes)

Soon enough, I appeared back in the scanners. I felt like I had been kicked in the gut, stabbed in the back and my heart broke all at the same time. I sobbed softly to myself. How could I have failed to save her? It all happened so fast I didn't even see her disappear. I then went back up to the lab. Jeremie, Aelita, Odd, Ulrich and Mr. Hopper were already waiting for me. I explained to them the fight between me, Odd, Ulrich and Xana-Yumi, how Yumi broke free from Xana's control, and how he found out about my weakness before he captured her. I omitted the make out scene to try and avoid provoking Ulrich's jealously.

William: I tried to save her. I really did try, but I failed... Xana knows the truth now.

(a beep is heard, Xana appears on the Supercomputer screen)

Jeremie: Oh this isn't good...

Xana: Hello, Lyoko Warriors. Miss me?

Ulrich (sarcastically): Oh great... Just great...

Franz Hopper: What do you want from us this time?


	38. Surrender Yourselves

Xana: My demands are simple. By 10pm tomorrow night, Jeremie, Aelita, Odd and Ulrich must surrender themselves to the Scyphozoa. Waldo, you and William must also surrender yourselves by that same time, or I'll destroy both of you very painfully.

Odd: And what if we refuse to give in to your demands?

Xana: If you refuse to comply, Yumi will be thrown into the Digital Sea, ensuring her ultimate deletion. (an image of Yumi chained up briefly appears, Ulrich and William gulp while the other heroes gasp, the image vanishes) You have until 10pm tomorrow to surrender yourselves. Oh, and by the way, Ulrich, William and Yumi were making out in the Forest Sector replika. (Ulrich gasps, Xana laughs before he disappears, Ulrich growls and glares at William, who is scared)

Ulrich: You kissed her?! How dare you! (he kicks William in the chin and into the wall, Odd and Jeremie restrain him)

Odd: Look Ulrich, I know you're mad, but that doesn't give you any right to hurt William.

Ulrich: So? He deserves it! He was making out with my girlfriend! (William gasps)

William: She's your girlfriend?!

Ulrich: Yes, she is! Didn't anyone tell you this?

William: No! Not anyone I would believe anyway...

Ulrich: Who told you?

William: Priscilla Blaise.

Jeremie: Wasn't she arrested for theft?

William: For multiple instances of theft, for framing a student, kidnapping another student, assault, and attempted murder. But that's beside the point. I thought she was lying. She always lies!

Ulrich: I don't know how she knew the truth, but she wasn't lying. Not this time anyway.

William: This doesn't make any sense... How could she have known? (he sees a vision of Yumi and Ulrich in the halls)

Yumi: I know you're worried, but, is there a reason that you asked me to come out here?

Ulrich: Yumi... I know you want us to be friends and nothing more, but...I'm tired of it. Yumi, I... I love you. And I know you love me. (he blushes, he puts his hand on Yumi's cheek, she blushes)

Yumi: Ulrich... I love you... To be honest, I never thought you would admit your love for me.

Ulrich: It was always Xana, William or my own pride and jealously getting in the way. I don't want anything or anyone to get in the way of this.

Yumi: Huh? (he kisses her, she kisses him back, Priscilla walks by and sees the two)

Priscilla: How interesting. I will have to make a note of this. (she runs away, the two stop kissing)

Ulrich: Did you hear something?

Yumi: Nope. (she puts her arms around his neck, he puts his arms around her waist, the vision ends)

Jeremie: You just got another vision didn't you?

William: Uh-huh. A flashback of how Yumi and Ulrich got together. Priscilla also happened to see the two making out and made a note of it. Everything makes sense now... (he face-palms) How could I have been so blind? (he removes his hand from his face as Ulrich glares at him)

Ulrich: You are such an idiot, William! Thanks to you, Yumi's in danger and we're all stuck between a rock and a hard place! This is all your fault!

William: How is this my fault?! (Odd is covering his ears, Jeremie and Aelita are displeased)

Odd: Stop it you two! You're hurting my ears!

Jeremie: Odd's right. Your rivalry is getting us nowhere. If you need me, I'll be in my quarters working. (Jeremie leaves)

We then went back to our respective dorms. It was 9:59pm. Almost ten. By about this time tomorrow, Yumi would be gone. Sammy was already asleep. I added the Yumi and Ulrich moment to the Book of Visions, shut it, and tried to go to sleep. I then noticed there was a letter on my desk. It was from my parents.

 _Dear William,_

 _We're happy to hear that you're okay, and that the elusive criminal has been caught. We hope that the science wing will be repaired soon. We can't believe that they only apprehended her a few weeks back. We've have always known that you struggle with math and science, although it looks like it may be too much to handle alone. Should we hire you and tutor for advanced algebra and chemistry? Contact us using our numbers that we have written below the letter. Although, aside from chemistry and your terrible substitute teacher, are there any other problems that are making high school difficult? We want you to succeed. Even though we may be far away, we love you and care very much about your well being. Hope to hear from you soon._

 _Love, Mom and Dad_

 _P.S- Try not to set any more buildings on fire._

I put their numbers into my phone and got into my pajamas. I lied on my bed and tried to fall asleep, but I was restless. Yumi was taken and in more ways than one. If we didn't surrender, she would be gone...


	39. First World Problems

I was very miserable the next day. I didn't even tell Sammy what was wrong. I didn't know what I was going to do. Mrs. Fritz's class wasn't helping. We were being asked to work on these worksheets during the class period. I tried to work on them, but I found it hard to focus on my work. Yumi... She couldn't die... she couldn't be gone... I still had a chance with her, right? I was trying to be optimistic, but considering the circumstances, it was immensely difficult. Then I started seeing visions...

(Yumi is chained up in the Chamber of Lyoko, she glares at Xana)

Xana: Everything is going according to plan. Pretty soon, your friends will be under my control and both William and Waldo Schaffer will be destroyed.

Yumi: Don't underestimate him, Xana. William won't go down without a fight.

Xana: Oh he wouldn't dare fight with the ultimatum I've lured your friends into. William loves you too much to be destroyed. He'll surrender. Now for the final preparations. (he disappears, Yumi looks down at the ground)

Yumi: William... Help me... I need you...

I knew exactly where she was. I couldn't give up now. Now I just needed to find a way to...

Mrs. Fritz: William Dunbar! (the vision ends) You've stared off into space too much! You're too inattentive! Five hours of detention for you starting at six o'clock!

William: What? I can't make that time! I have an appointment at 10pm!

Mrs. Fritz: You're just lying.

William: I'm not lying, I swear!

Mrs. Fritz: What could be so important as to... (the bell rings) If you don't show up to tonight's detention, you'll regret it!

Now what? I just had to get detention on the one day I needed to be somewhere else. I skipped lunch and was even more miserable than usual during gym class. My P.E teacher took note of this and confronted me about it while I did various barbell exercises.

Jim: You ok, William? You look awfully glum. (he continues doing squats with a barbell)

William: No, I'm not. It feels like the whole world's against me right now.

Jim: Anything you wanna talk about? (he switches to doing military press)

William: I'd rather not talk about it.

Jim: I understand.

William: Well, there's something important I need to do at a certain time, but has given me detention during that time. (he switches to bicep curls) If I don't do that task in a certain amount of time, bad things will occur.

Jim: And I'm guessing your the only one who can do this task?

William: Basically. Any helpful advice?

Jim: You know why I generally punish students, right? It's because they're usually breaking the rules. Normally, I wouldn't encourage this, but... William, if Mrs. Fritz is getting in your hair, then you can't follow her orders. (William finishes his barbell exercises) Alright, everyone, go get dressed! Get back into your normal clothes!

Can't follow orders. Not following orders, being rebellious! Yes, that's it! Everything clicked and I smiled to myself briefly, but no one noticed. After I finished all my homework, I grabbed a piece of paper and tried to think of some plans. At 5:30pm, I left to find the other Lyoko Warriors. Unfortunately, it took me about 20 minutes to find them. We discussed our plans to save Yumi and defeat Xana once and for all.

Odd: Are you sure this will work?

William: It was to work. Otherwise, we lose Yumi forever.

Ulrich: Then all of my crazy fan-girls will chase after me knowing that I'll be free.

(Sissi, Emily, Milly, Tamiya and a few other girls surround them on one side)

Sissi: You said that you were free? You're mine, Ulrich!

Milly: No way, Sissi! You don't deserve him! (a few arguments start up, they slowly back away but they approach him)

William: Now what do we do?

Ulrich: The only thing we can do; RUN! (they scram, the fan girl army chases after them)

Add that to the list of current problems; Mrs. Fritz giving me detention, Yumi being held captive by Xana, Xana trying to force us into surrendering so that he can use us to take over the world and being chased down by an army of crazy fan girls.

 _Yep, I have first world problems._ I thought to myself as we ran.


	40. Run Away

I ran in harsh storms, away from criminals and other malicious threats, but running away from an army of crazy fan girls was difficult.

Aelita: Ulrich, how many fan girls do you have?

Ulrich: Quite a lot.

William: Ulrich, remind me why we're running away from your fan girls?!

Ulrich: I just have too many admirers.

William: I can see why you like Yumi. She's the only fan girl who isn't insane.

Ulrich: You stay away from Yumi!

William: Hey you have to acknowledge the fact that I didn't know Yumi was taken! If I had known better, I wouldn't of kissed her.

Ulrich: You should have listened to Priscilla!

William: Ulrich, why would you have expected me to...? (his phone rings) Oi vey... (he answers it) You picked a bad time to make a phone call.

Sammy (on phone): Why, what's going on?

William: At the moment, we're running away from an army of fan girls.

Sammy: Oh, that's not good.

William: Yeah. Got any advice?

Sammy: I have a plan, listen closely.

By the time we were gone talking to each other, the five of us were in the Science building. It was forbidden for students to be in here without permission, but if it helped us to escape the sea of raging hormones, then why wouldn't we hide in here?

(The Lyoko Warriors are panting, Sammy shows up, William puts his phone away)

William: I owe you one Sammy. Without your help, we never would have escaped the fan girls.

Sammy: No problem. Silly question, but, do you have any idea as to why Xana possessed a bunch of school girls to try and kill you and your friends?

William: First off, they were not possessed. They were just crazy because Ulrich is the most admired boy in the school.

Sammy: Oh. Okay then. That would explain a lot.

Jeremie: Wait, did he just say possessed by Xana? (William stutters)

Sammy: William, you've been neglecting to tell Jeremie the truth for weeks. If you aren't gonna tell him, then I will.

Jeremie: Tell me what? William, what have you been hiding?!

Sammy: Jeremie, I'm immune to the return to the past program and I remember everything from Operation:Save Yumi. (Jeremie gasps)

Jeremie: What?! (Aelita massages his shoulders)

Aelita: Calm down, Jeremie... (he breathes in deeply before exhaling)

Jeremie: Ok. First question, is anyone else immune to the return to the past?

Sammy: No, just me.

Jeremie: Alright. Second question to William, why didn't you tell me this earlier?!

William: I tried to tell you before you launched the return in time, but you wouldn't listen. Afterwards you were so mad at me, I thought that if you knew, you would ban me from the group for life.

Jeremie: I can understand that, but I would have preferred it if you had told me this earlier. Now we have two problems.

William: Sammy being immune to the time reversion is the lesser of our two problems.

Sammy: William, what's going on? (Jim finds them)

Jim: Hey, what are you guys doing here?

Odd: Sorry Jim. We were running away from a mob of crazy fan girls. We came here to escape from them.

Jim: That would explain a lot. (he turns to William) And William, don't you have somewhere you're "not supposed" to be in four minutes?

William: Oh no, I completely forgot! Thanks for the reminder. (Jim smirks and chuckles, William turns to the group) Guys, we need to move, now! (he runs out, the others follow)

Ulrich: William, what's going on?!

Sammy: Wait a minute, don't you have a detention session with Mrs. Fritz?

William: I do, but I can't go there. If I don't go to Lyoko to save Yumi, I'll never forgive myself. If we fail to save her, I'd be stricken with unimaginable grief and either commit suicide or live the rest of my life with eternal guilt. (he opens the manhole cover and climbs down the letter going into the sewers, Sammy follows him, followed by Ulrich, Odd, Jeremie and finally Aelita, he lands on the grounds of the sewers) Maybe it is selfish that I care more about saving Yumi than the world, but to me, she is the world.

(Sammy finishes climbing downward)

Ulrich: You're willing to risk even harsher punishment just to save her? (he jumps down and lands on his feet)

William: Well, if you were in my shoes, what would you do? (Aelita's phone rings as Odd and Jeremie finish climbing downward, she stops)

Aelita: Hello? (muttering is heard) Oh hi dad. (muttering) We're in the sewers. (muttering) It's me, Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, William, and his friend Sammy, who is apparently, immune to time reversion. (more muttering) I have no idea. I'll be at the Hermitage in a few minutes, after that, I'll get in touch with the others on where we should rendezvous for dinner and to discuss plans. Ok? (muttering) Ok, I'll meet you there. Love ya, dad. Goodbye. (she hangs up) That was my dad. (she finishes climbing down the ladder) Jeremie, come with me, we're going to the Hermitage. (she takes him by the hand and runs off with him)

Odd: So, now what?

Sammy: Well, I'd like an explanation of what's recently happened. William's been depressed all day and he won't explain why.


	41. I Become a Wanted Criminal (or Student)

Author's Notes:

-I'm back from my vacation in Canada! It was quite the experience! Now then, let's get this show back on the road!

The four of us sat around in the sewers. It was cold, damp, and rather smelly. The four of us were waiting here after Jeremie and Aelita left to get her father and have him join us in our last attempt to stop Xana.

Sammy: Uh, I forgot how much it stinks down here!

Odd: You get used to it in time.

Sammy: So tell me William, what happened yesterday while you were on Lyoko?

I told Sammy everything that happened yesterday. From the final battle with Xana-Yumi to Xana capturing her all and everything else.

William: He blackmailed us into an ultimatum; surrender or she dies. And to top it all off, Yumi was already taken!

Sammy: Let me guess. It's Ulrich. (William sadly nods) Wait then that means...

William: Priscilla was right this whole time. I had a vision of how the two got together behind everyone's backs. She was the sole witness of their romantic acts.

Ulrich: I still can't believe she saw us making out. I was sure that no one saw us!

Odd: You thought wrong, my friend.

Ulrich: Me and Yumi both.

Sammy: I can't believe it. Priscilla, the evil thief, traitor and liar... wasn't lying about Yumi and Ulrich.

William: I'm still in shock too, Sammy.

Odd: I'm surprised she didn't spread the word about you two.

Ulrich: There's a reason me and Yumi were quiet about our romantic entanglement.

William: Hey um, Ulrich. I hope you don't mind me asking this, but, how long were you and Yumi together before Xana possessed you and the others?

Ulrich: About a month.

William: Wow. Much longer than I had thought. (Odd's phone rings, he answers it)

Odd: Hey princess. What's up? (muttering is heard) Coco's Cafe? I'm not sure where that is. Could you give me directions? (more muttering is heard) Ok, got it. We'll see you there. Bye. (he hangs up)

Sammy: Princess? (he looks at William, who shrugs)

Odd: It's a nickname for Aelita. We call her that on occasion. We're moving out, cause I know where we're going.

A while later, we stood in front of a restaurant nearby an alley and a hair salon. On the outside, the place had yellow walls, windows with purple curtains on the inside and a few outdoor tables. But who would be eating outside in early January?

William: Coco's Cafe. At least Mrs. Fritz, or anyone else, won't find me here.

Ulrich: Come on. The others are waiting on us.

We walked in and got a table for seven. Luckily, a party of eight just left only a minute before Aelita, Jeremie and Franz Hopper (who went under the name of Francis Stones) got us a table. We ordered our drinks, but shortly after, I got yet another vision.

(Mrs. Fritz is shown waiting in her classroom, looking at her watch)

Mrs. Fritz: Where is he? (the scene switches to her at Mr. Delmas's office)

Mr. Delmas: What do you mean he isn't there?

Mrs. Fritz: I waited for 30 minutes for him to show up for his evening detention, and he never came. I'm convinced that he fled the school.

Mr. Delmas: That's ridiculous. Or is it? I'll have the teachers search the school for him. Where is Jim? (Jim walks in)

Jim: Right here, Mr. Delmas. You called?

Mr. Delmas: I need you, Mrs. Fritz, Mrs. Davis, Mr. Bible, and Mr. Herman to search the school and find where William Dunbar is hiding.

Jim: Right away.

Mrs. Fritz: Whenever I find that little rebel, whether it be today or tomorrow, he is going to be in a lot of trouble. (the vision ends)

Sammy: William? Are you alright?

William: Not exactly. I just had a bad vision. Mrs. Fritz is mad that I skipped detention, and she, as well as some of my other teachers, are looking for me.

Franz Hopper: That doesn't sound good.

William: No it isn't. Assuming that I survive tonight's perils, I'll be facing the wrath of Mrs. Fritz tomorrow.

Sammy: That is true. Even if we get rid of Xana, how we will get Mrs. Fritz to leave?

William: Doesn't she have only a few more days left before comes back?

Sammy: Um... Uh... About that...


	42. Operation:Save Yumi Again Begins

Author's Notes:

-Alright, we're almost there. And I added a few extra things to this chapter, just to clear up something that was never addressed the first time round.

William: What's wrong?

Sammy: Ok, I overheard a conversation between Mr. Delmas and Mrs. Fritz when I wasn't supposed to. (he sighs) Apparently, Mrs. Campbell's son has some medical problems and she'll need to be on her maternity leave longer than she had planned.

William: Oi vey. When is she supposed to return?

Sammy: I believe she's supposed to return... March 28th?

William: Seriously?! That's over another two months with Mrs. Fritz! (he groans)

Sammy: I knew you weren't going to like hearing that.

William: I can't stand that woman anymore. She's awful! And it's thanks to you-who-know that I got stuck with her as a teacher in the first place!

Odd: Do either of them know that you spied on them?

Sammy: I don't think so. (William groans) We'll get through this.

William: I don't know about that. (he sees another vision of someone putting a large kitchen knife in a drawer, the figure walks away, the vision ends) Come on, we've payed the bill. Let's move out of here.

(the others walk on by, William notices Patrick Belepois at a table all by himself)

Jeremie (muttering): Patrick? What's my cousin doing at a table all by himself?

William: Hey guys, go on ahead. I got a bone to pick with Jeremie's cousin. (the others look confused, but Jeremie pushes them along, William walks up to Patrick at his table after the waitress leaves) Hey Patrick, remember me? (Patrick looks at William in shock)

Patrick: William? What are you doing here?

William: Where's Vanessa? Shouldn't she be with you?

Patrick: You don't get it, do you? Things have changed in your absence. Three months after your expulsion from Cours Cyrano, I discovered that Vanessa had cheated on me with a handsome football player. I felt so angry and betrayed when I heard her tell her friend the information over the phone, but, desiring revenge, did not reveal to her I knew this fact. I was originally going to pull a prank on her by having marshmallow fluff get into her hair and let her know I set it up so she would dump me, but less than two weeks ago, I heard her father, Eric Sterling, confess how he stabbed you with a fork in the arm prior to you leaving campus. So I called the cops and dumped Vanessa. Vanessa's father was arrested and Vanessa was arrested as well because it was discovered that she collaborated with a thief in stealing necklaces from a jewelry store.

William: Ouch. That's gotta hurt.

Patrick: It did. Also, don't be surprised if you get called to court to present your testimony.

William: Good to know.

Patrick: So, how have you been during these last few months? Did you find a new girl to pursue?

William: Well, I did, but... (an image of Yumi and Ulrich smiling together appears, then a vision of Yumi chained up, before returning to reality) I'm about to lose her.

Patrick: Then fight for her. Don't let her go. Don't let her slip away from you, yet don't force her to make a decision. That'll only make things worse.

William: Thanks for advice. I guess I'll see you later. (he starts to walk away)

Patrick: Hey, William. (he stops) I'm sorry. I know you may never forgive me for what I did, but I feel bad about what I've done. I haven't forgiven myself even. Good luck, Will.

I paused. No one called me Will in a long time. It was an old nickname that went unused for quite some time. I tried to smile.

William: Thank you. (to himself) I'm going to need it.

After that, I meet up with the others, who were waiting outside and went to the sewers. Jeremie worked on his laptop to finish an anti-virus program. It took several hours to finish it and he was working like mad. We hung around the sewers for a while and discussed previous Lyoko adventures and we learned a lot about Aelita, Lyoko and how Xana was created in the first place. Eventually, it became 9:45. Since Sammy was already immune to the return to past, there was no need for him to go through initiation like I did. We went down to the lab.

Franz Hopper: Look like Xana's wasted no time with his plans. The Scyphozoa has already arrived in the Forest Sector.

Sammy: So now what?

Franz Hopper: William will be transported to the Mountain Sector then taken to the Sector 5 hopefully so that Xana doesn't see it coming. (he looks at William) William, are you sure you want to handle this task alone?

William: I'm sure. The more people distracting Xana, the better.

Franz Hopper: Alright then. The rest of you will go to the Forest Sector and cooperate to defeat the Scyphozoa without getting possessed. Aelita, at the right moment, you will go to the interface in Sector 5 and launch our multi-agent program to destroy Xana. Any questions?

Sammy: Um, what exactly is the Scyphozoa?

William: A large jellyfish-like monster that can possess any Lyoko Warrior.

Ulrich: A word of advice; Don't let it capture you. You could end up possessed like me and some others.

Sammy: Good to know.

We got into the scanner room. There were only three scanners and I was going to be sent into the Mountain Sector at the same time Sammy and Ulrich were virtualized in the Forest Sector.

Franz Hopper (off-screen): Transfer Jeremie. Transfer Aelita. Transfer Odd. Scanner Jeremie. Scanner Aelita. Scanner Odd. Virtualization complete. Your turn guys. (William, Sammy and Ulrich step into a scanner)

Sammy: Good luck, William.

William: Thanks, Sam. I'm probably going to need it. (the scanners close)

Franz Hopper (off-screen): Transfer William. Transfer Sammy. Transfer Ulrich. Scanner William. Scanner Sammy. Scanner Ulrich. Virtualization complete.

As I felt myself go through virtualization, I wondered if I would survive this final stand.

(William appears in the Mountain Sector, he runs)

I thought that Xana's monsters would try and stop me, but surprisingly, it was quiet in the Mountain Region. Too quiet it seemed.

(The Transport Orb arrives at the Mountain Sector and William is encircled in it and it travels to Sector 5)

After getting to Sector 5, it seemed quiet. I had went through the entire sector and still nothing. I got to the interface.

(Yumi's Overwing is virtualized, William steps on and goes to the Chamber of Lyoko, he steps onto the ground and Yumi slowly wakes up)

Yumi: Will... William?

William: Don't worry Yumi, I'm gonna get you out of here. (he tries to undo the chains)

Yumi: William, it's a trap! (he is shot with a laser from a Blok, Xana appears)

Xana: Ah, just perfect. I knew you'd fall into my trap.

William: Xana!

Xana: I wanted you to get detention and do away with yourself. Once I knew you didn't show, I knew you'd come here. Tell me William Dunbar, do you really think you can save Yumi with all the monsters? (he snaps his fingers, several monsters are virtualized)

Xana virtualized several monsters. Bloks, Creepers, Kankrelats, Krabs, Megatanks, Tarantulas, Hornets and Mantas. And there were a lot of them. I summoned my sword and glared at Xana.

Yumi: William!

Xana: Monsters, destroy him! (he disappears in smoke)


	43. A hero, a villain, or a lost cause?

I had faced a lot of problems in life, but facing an army of Xana's monsters single-handily was not one of them.

(William uses his sword to deflect the Creepers lasers to the Hornets, destroying them)

Franz Hopper (off-screen): Anything in the way of good news?

William: Uh, not really, no. (he barely dodges a Megatank's laser) Xana anticipated that I would come to save Yumi so he set him a big army of monsters for me to play with! (he is shot with a laser from a Krab before he chops his leg off)

Franz Hopper (off-screen): I'm sending Aelita and Sammy as back-up, but don't count on them, for they may arrive too late. Just hang in there!

William: Good to know. (he slices through a Tarantula and dodges a Megatank laser, dropping his sword in the process, he back-flips to dodge lasers and summons his sword to deflect laser fire back to the Kankrelats, destroying them all, before being hit by one of their lasers)

Franz Hopper (off-screen): William, you have 75 life points left. (William throws his sword at a Megatank, devirtualizing it before summoning it back to him, he destroys the Bloks by swinging his sword and slicing through all of them he barely dodges a fire ring from one, he gets hit by a Blok using a freezing beam, freezing his feet to the ground, he continues to deflect oncoming attacks by tilting his sword, eventually his feet unfreeze)

William: When is that backup supposed to arrive? (he dodges a laser from a Megatank, but gets hit by a Blok's laser again, he slices up several Creepers and dodges some Hornets, he gets hit with a laser from a Hornet, he growls)

Franz Hopper (off-screen): You're down to 20 life points, William... (he is heard choking)

William: Mr. Hopper? Mr. Hopper?! (William dodges the Tarantula's lasers)

I had no idea what was happening to him, but at that point, I assumed I was completely on my own.

(he throws his sword at the Megatank, destroying it and he destroys the last three Tarantulas and barely dodges their lasers, he breathes in and out) Well, that was no easy task. (he uses his sword to cut Yumi's chains, freeing her, he drops his sword, then throws his arms around her)

William: I thought I was going to lose you. (William kisses her for a few seconds)

Yumi: You're my hero, William. (they kiss each other)

We both knew that we shouldn't have been doing this, but we were in love, and no one was around. Or so we thought...

Sammy: Hey Romeo! (William turns to see him on a Manta programmed by Franz Hopper) I know you love Juliet, but we still have a world to save! (William takes Yumi by the hand and runs over to him)

William: You have a point.

Sammy wore a green outfit in the form of a tunic with brown boots and had a bow and arrow strapped over his back. He looked a lot like Robin Hood.

Yumi: Sammy? How did he get into the Lyoko Warriors?

William: Long story. Where's Aelita?

Sammy: She's at the interface battling Xana himself. Sadly, I think it will be hard for all three of us to ride one Hopper-programmed manta.

Jeremie (off-screen): I'm sending you the Overbike. Franz Hopper was knocked out by a spectre. (the Overbike appears, William and Yumi get on and go up to the Celestial Dome where Aelita is holding back Xana with her energy field) Oh no, Franz Hopper may be injured. Hurry up and defeat Xana! Ah!

(Sammy fires arrows at the same time Yumi throws her fans at him, she looks at Xana)

Yumi: It's over Xana.

Sammy: You're outnumbered and outmatched. (Aelita finds the program as Xana throws black lightning at Sammy, devirtualizing him) Ahh! (he disappears, Xana chains one of her hands and drags her back, William throws his sword at Xana but he takes it, and destroys the Overbike, he and Yumi fall, but Yumi grabs onto William's left hand, his right hand holding onto the edge, Xana discards the sword and attacks Aelita, she rises another energy field to block his attacks)

Xana: You can't hold my power back forever, Aelita!

William: You'll never get away with this, Xana!

Xana: Really? What are you William? Are you a hero, a villain, or just a lost cause? (he laughs) You try to save Yumi, but she's slowly slipping from your grasp. Some people believe you're still evil for the fire incident. You're nothing but a lost cause, William!

From this view, it seemed as if he was right. One slip up, and both me and Yumi would be falling into the Celestial Dome. If we fell, I'm was unsure if they could devirtualize us in time. If we fell and Aelita tried to save us, she would be too busy fighting Xana, or worst case scenario, she would be devirtualized and the mission to defeat Xana would fail.

Xana: Give it up, little hero. You'll never be able to save Yumi, or yourself!


	44. How It All Ends

Xana: Give it up, little hero. You'll never be able to save Yumi, or yourself!

Aelita's shield was about to break. She was dangerously low on life points. One more hit, and this mission would be a failure. Failure was not an option, but what could I do, if anything, to stop Xana?

Xana: Well, William, you and your friends have reached the end of the line. Any last words? (he looks below him, seeing the Celestial Dome below him)

William: Yes. Yumi, I love you. (he throws her upward, letting go and slowly falling towards the Celestial Dome, Yumi hits Xana with her fan before landing on the ground)

Yumi: Now Aelita! (Aelita touches the interface as Xana hits her with a black lightning bolt, she devirtualizes as a program is launched)

Xana: What, what is happening?! (streams of white light hit Xana) No! (Yumi looks down and sees William falling) This can not be!

Yumi: William! (Ulrich strikes Xana with his sword, Yumi uses her telekinesis to stop William before he hits the edge, and slowly lifts him up as Ulrich continues to strike at Xana)

Ulrich: Now you'll think twice before kidnapping my girl! (William sees Xana surrounded by white light as he nears to the top, Ulrich stops slashing him)

Xana: Curse you, William Dunbar! Curses! (he disappears in a flash of white light and fades away as Yumi sets William down on the floor)

Yumi: Finally...

Ulrich: It's over. (William throws his arms around Yumi, Ulrich appears shocked)

William: I thought I was going to lose you.

Yumi: You didn't. (she hugs him briefly) You may not of been the one to ultimately vanquish Xana, but you're a hero, William. You really are, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. (Ulrich smiles)

Ulrich: Ya know, to be honest, I didn't think you were up for this. I thought you couldn't save Yumi or the world. Somehow, you managed to save both. (he glares at William) But don't think I'm going to get off your case. I'm still mad at you for what happened back at the Forest replika.

Yumi: Huh? What is he talking about?

William: He knows that we were making out back there.

Yumi: Really? Oh man...

Ulrich: And William also learned of our entanglement.

William: Hey, if I actually knew better, I wouldn't of kissed her. (Yumi chuckles)

Yumi: Hey, what happened to Jeremie and Franz Hopper?

Sammy (off-screen): They're both fine. While William was fighting the army of monsters, Xana activated a tower to try and keep us busy. He got knocked out and Jeremie was also battling another specter, but with Xana's downfall, everything is peaceful. Alright, I'll bring you guys back in. (they devirtualize and reappear in the scanners, they go up the elevator to the lab where the others are)

Odd: I must say he gave us a really hard time.

William: He knew I was going to be rebellious, so he pulled out all the stops to try and eliminate me.

Yumi: Did you really ditch detention just to save me?

William: Pretty much. I was supposed to be there from 6pm to 11 tonight, but it's probably past 11 by now.

Jeremie: 10:12pm actually, but who's really keeping track of time? (Franz Hopper wakes up)

Franz Hopper: Ugh... What happened?

Aelita: You were knocked out, but we still managed to defeat Xana.

Franz Hopper: I'm surprised that I wasn't killed, but that's good nonetheless.

Jeremie: We better go our separate ways. It's been a long night. Tomorrow, we'll come back here and shut down the computer.

Ulrich: Yeah. Don't we have an Italian test tomorrow?

Odd: Oh, crud. I didn't study. I'm dead...

Franz Hopper went back to the Hermitage, and Aelita, Odd, Jeremie and Sammy went back to their respective dorms. Me, Ulrich and Yumi were sitting over by the river, our nerves wrecked from the battle. We all sat a few feet away from each other, trying not to create a tense, envious atmosphere. It had been a long, long day. We just wanted the chance to relax. To let Yumi take in the real world, which she hadn't seen in months. Both me and Ulrich agreed to let our rivalry, if only temporarily, for Yumi to enjoy this moment.

Yumi: It feels so good to be back. I've forgotten how the cool night breeze feels. The moonlit nights spent wondering and thinking about everything. (Ulrich smiles)

Ulrich: We missed you, Yumi. We all did. William probably missed you more since I was the penultimate warrior to be freed from Xana's grasp.

William: I would say that I missed her, but it would be an understatement. (Yumi chuckles)

Yumi: So what all has happened while I was away?

William: Quite a lot.


	45. Back to Normal

I told Yumi of some of the many events that happened at Kadic, including the Heated Rivalry incident, the Triple Theft Case, the final clash between me and Priscilla, David trying to kill me, Mrs. Fritz taking 's place, and everything else. I told her everything.

Yumi: Wow. Who knew that so much could happen while I was away? (she looks at her phone) It's 11:05. You should be safe to go back to Kadic by now.

William: Thanks for the info. (he gets up and recalls a vision of someone putting a knife into a drawer) Although, I have something else I need to do.

Ulrich: Really? What would that be?

William: Oh, you'll see soon enough. In the meantime, you and Yumi can send some quality time together. (William runs off, he is seen in front of a classroom door, and starts dialing a number and hears a phone ring)

After about half an hour, I returned to my room, exhausted from all the day's events. As I slept, I saw what happened with the other Lyoko Warriors while I was saving Yumi. Aelita, Jeremy and Odd were virtualized in the Ice Sector, followed by Ulrich and Sammy. Sammy saw himself in his attire.

Sammy: Well, this is strange attire. What's my weapon supposed to be?

Jeremie: So, who's going to volunteer as 'tribute'?

Ulrich: You mean sacrifice?

(the Scyphozoa comes forward, Odd shots at it with laser arrows but it doesn't stop, Odd dodges its advances)

Odd: Dang it, that thing won't quit!

(Jeremie slices off some of its tentacles, several monsters start appearing, mainly Bloks, Kankrelats and Hornets, with three Megatanks, shadows begin to form)

Jeremie: Aelita, hide! (Aelita runs into the tower, Xana steps out the shadows)

Xana: You guys won't surrender, will you? (Sammy glares at him)

Sammy: No, we won't.

Xana: You guys brought another rookie with you? (he laughs) How foolish are you?

(Sammy growls, barely dodging some lasers, Odd fires at Xana but he turns into a shadow, nullifying the arrows effects, Ulrich dashes up to him with Super Sprint and engages in a sword fight with him, the Supercomputer screen shows their ID cards, with Xana showing an infinity sign for health and max attack power, Sammy finds his bow and arrow and starts firing at the monsters, eliminating them)

Odd: Oh come on!

Franz Hopper (voice): I've got bad news, guys. Xana's activated a tower. Also, William's in trouble! One of you, go down to Sector 5 immediately!

(Sammy starts running, shooting monsters along the way, Xana notices, but Odd throws arrows at his face, damaging him)

Franz Hopper (voice): You're down to 20 life points, William... (he is heard choking)

Jeremie: Franz? Franz?! This isn't good guys! I think he's being attacked by a spectre!

Odd: Then go and help him! We'll take it from here. (Jeremie uses his sword to reflect a laser back to a monster, causing it to destroy itself before devirtualizing himself with his own sword, Jeremie reappears in the scanners, cut to William fighting monsters for a few moments, cut back to the Ice Sector, Ulrich is trapped in a cage)

Xana: Don't even think about trying to escape. Face it, you foolish mortals can not hope to defeat me.

Jeremie (voice): He's right. His health is infinite!

Odd: Well then, we'll just have to slow him down! (he fires at Xana, cut to Jeremie, who is seen in the computer room, a spectre of William is shown electrifying Franz Hopper)

Jeremie: Leave him, alone, Xana! (the spectre throws Franz Hopper aside and starts to attack Jeremie, he dodges his attacks, cut to Sammy at the edge)

Sammy: Uh, Jeremie, where's the path to Carthage?

Jeremie: Hold on a second! (he types in the code and enters it, the spectre pulls him away from the computer, Jeremie punches him, Sammy goes to Carthage, cut to the Ice Sector, he speaks in a whispered tone) Aelita, you might want to sneak away from the tower to Carthage right now, while Xana's distracted. (Aelita sneaks away, but not before breaking Ulrich's cage by creating an ice block and letting it fall, leaving Odd and Ulrich with Xana, Odd is throwing several arrows at him)

Xana: What is this? I heard an angel's voice. Where is she?! (he runs after her)

Ulrich: After him! Super Sprint! (he dashes after Xana, he summons several Megatanks, Odd gets left in the dust and run over by a Megatank, devirtualizing him, the chase continues, Xana disappears, cut to Aelita at the Interface, about to launch the program, she hears Xana and shields herself for a while until William, Yumi and Sammy show up)

Yumi: It's over Xana.

Sammy: You're outnumbered and outmatched. (Aelita finds the program as Xana throws black lightning at Sammy, devirtualizing him) Ahh! (he disappears, and reappears back in the scanners and is shown fighting the spectre, cut to Sector 5, Xana chains one of Aelita's hands and drags her back, William throws his sword at Xana but he takes it, and destroys the Overbike, he and Yumi fall, but Yumi grabs onto William's left hand, his right hand holding onto the edge, Xana discards the sword and attacks Aelita, she rises another energy field to block his attacks)

Xana: You can't hold my power back forever, Aelita!

William: You'll never get away with this, Xana!

Xana: Really? What are you William? Are you a hero, a villain, or just a lost cause? (he laughs) You try to save Yumi, but she's slowly slipping from your grasp. Some people believe you're still evil for the fire incident. You're nothing but a lost cause, William! Give it up, little hero. You'll never be able to save Yumi, or yourself!

(Aelita's life points are dangerously low, Sammy sees this on the screen)

Sammy: Come on, William. There must be something you can do. Oh! If only Ulrich would hurry up... (back to Xana)

Xana: Well, William, you and your friends have reached the end of the line. Any last words? (he looks below him, seeing the Celestial Dome below him)

William: Yes. Yumi, I love you. (he throws her upward, letting go and slowly falling towards the Celestial Dome, Yumi hits Xana with her fan before landing on the ground)

Yumi: Now Aelita! (Aelita touches the interface as Xana hits her with a black lightning bolt, she devirtualizes as a program is launched)

Xana: What, what is happening?! (streams of white light hit Xana) No! (Yumi looks down and sees William falling) This can not be!

Yumi: William! (Ulrich strikes Xana with his sword, Yumi uses her telekinesis to stop William before he hits the edge, and slowly lifts him up as Ulrich continues to strike at Xana)

Ulrich: Now you'll think twice before kidnapping my girl! (William sees Xana surrounded by white light as he nears to the top, Ulrich stops slashing him)

Xana: Curse you, William Dunbar! Curses! (he disappears in a flash of white light and fades away as Yumi sets William down on the floor)

The alarm clock went off. It was January 6th. It may have been Saturday and a half day, but I would still be facing the wrath of Mrs. Fritz, and I was right. The next day, Mrs. Fritz was not very happy.

Mrs. Fritz: I have bad news for you. Due to Mrs. Campbell's son having some bad medical problems, Mrs. Campbell won't be returning for another ten weeks. (the class moans)

Sammy: Aw man!

William (sarcastically): Oh great. Just great.

Mrs. Fritz: I knew you would be thrilled. (she looks at William) And William Dunbar, you are in a lot of trouble for ditching detention. I swear, you are going to... (the three police officers enter) Ah finally, they're here to arrest you.

Officer 1: Sorry Mrs. Fritz, but that's not the case. (Officer 3 gets out the handcuffs and takes Mrs. Fritz's wrists and handcuffs them)

Officer 3: You're the one under arrest.

Mrs. Fritz: Arrest? For what?!

Officer 2: For possession of a lethal weapon, and attempted murder.

Sammy: Attempted murder?

Maithas: Here's the tape officers. (they play the video tape which shows William in Mrs. Fritz's room)

William: Mrs. Fritz, are you here? (a blue cloaked figure appears with a knife, she cuts William's wrist with the knife, causing him to cry out in pain) Mrs. Fritz, how could you do this?

Anais: And that same knife is located in this drawer. (she opens it, revealing a blood-stained knife, the entire class gasps)

William: Well, what do you have to say for yourself?

Mrs. Fritz: Ok, I will admit that I had the knife in my possession, but I don't remember me ever trying to kill anyone with it!

Officer 3: Yeah, yeah, tell it to the judge, Selena Fritz. You have the right to remain silent.

(they drag her out of the room, the class cheers)

Yumi: So... what now?

Maithas: We should probably tell Mr. Delmas that our teacher's been arrested.

William: We could, but what's the fun in that?

Mrs. Fritz may have already had the knife in her possession, but me, Maithas and Anais framed her for to trying to murder me. Anais donned a blue cloak and pretended to cut my wrist while Maithas filmed the whole thing. This is our own secret, and nobody knew this except us. Ok fine, the three of us, plus Sammy and Yumi. Sammy was happy, and Yumi wasn't very mad after I explained my reasoning. After my terrible teacher was arrested, the two of us stayed there for a while enjoying each others company. That is, until Jim caught us.

Jim: William Dunbar, you have some explaining to do. (William nervously laughs)

William: Uh, I can explain...

We explained the situation, but he made us do pushups anyway. I think he was mostly trying to punish me for ditching detention last night. By the time I got to gym class, he made me run with the first group of students. We were doing mile runs. After I finished my final lap, I ended up tripping again, for some odd reason, but Yumi helped me up.

(Yumi hands William a water bottle, he smiles)

If my face wasn't already so red from running, I would of been blushing for sure. Although strangely enough, when I got back to my room, I saw a note attached to my bedroom door.

William: Huh? What's this? A letter? (he takes the note and reads it) _"Meet me at the Factory tonight. Signed Yumi."_ Hmm.


	46. Endless Love

Author's Notes:

-This is the last chapter of this story. I hope you've enjoyed it. Now prepare yourselves for some heart-warming fluffiness.

I meet Yumi at the Factory at 8:00pm that night. Perfectly enough, she was already there right outside.

William: Hey Yumi.

Yumi: Ah, William, you're here. (she chuckles) Did you get detention again?

William: No, but I was getting scolded by a teacher for a while.

Yumi: That stinks. So I'm guessing you just wanted to get me somewhere we wouldn't be disturbed? (they walk in)

William: I thought I got a note from you asking me to meet you here.

Yumi: We both got notes... How strange... (she looks away and sighs) I suppose I should tell you what happened this afternoon. Me and Ulrich broke up for good.

William: Really? How come?

Yumi: My romantic feelings for him have slowly, yet truly, disappeared. I can't take his jealously and immature behavior. Sure, he may be a great friend, but... I don't think we're really meant to be.

William: That would explain it. I almost thought that you and Ulrich were going to be together and pick up where you had left off.

Yumi: William, answer this honestly, if I was in a romantic entanglement with him, would you leave us be?

William: I would be very upset, but I respect your decision on whoever you choose. Whether it be me, Ulrich, or some other guy.

Yumi: William... (she throws her arms around him) I want you.

William: You, you do? (she kisses him, he then kisses her back, after about ten seconds, William gazes into Yumi's eyes)

Yumi: I love you, William.

William: I love you too, Yumi. Oh, and there's something I wanted to give to you. I know that in Japan, you normally don't open a present in front of the giver, but I want to see your reaction to it. Also, I didn't have much time to gift wrap it. Close your eyes and hold out your hand. (she extends her left hand, William reaches into his pocket and pulls out a silver necklace with a silver heart and a blue heart stone within it) Open your eyes. (she does so)

Yumi: Wow... It's beautiful. Where did you get the necklace?

William: It's a long story. Perhaps I'll tell you one day. (she puts it on) If anyone asks, just say it was a gift. You don't even have to mention that I gave it to you. (a phone is heard vibrating)

Sammy (voice): Oh crud... (he ends up falling over the edge, and drops his phone, William catches it in his hand)

William: Let me guess, you set this up, didn't you?

Sammy: Yes I did. I heard Yumi arguing with Ulrich and I saw them break up. (he lets go, landing on his feet, William hands his phone back to him)

Yumi: You sneaky mcsneak! (they all laugh)

Ever since then, things were definitely looking up for all of us.

Epilogue

About seven years had passed from the day me and Yumi got together. Ulrich did eventually discover our romantic entanglement, and while he's not happy about it, he learned to live with it. I worked as a guitarist, while Yumi was a detective. Oh, and she still wore the necklace that Priscilla used to own. Looking for her dad, I went over to the Ishimaya residence.

(William knocks on the door, Hiroki answers it)

Hiroki: Hello William. Come on in. (he does so)

William: Where's Yumi's mom?

Hiroki: She's at Coco's Cafe, working as a chef, remember? Ever since dad was diagnosed with cancer, she's been working double, sometimes triple shifts just to make a living and keep our home. (Mrs. Ishimaya comes in, collapsing on the couch) Mom! Are you ok?!

Mrs. Ishimaya: I'm alright. (she sits up) Just exhausted.

Hiroki: For goodness's sake, I don't want you to work yourself to death.

Mrs. Ishimaya: I don't want you to worry about getting a job until after you graduate from Kadic Academy. (Hiroki leaves the room)

William: I know that Mr. Ishimaya doesn't want any visitors, but can I still see him?

Mrs. Ishimaya: You're going to ask for his blessing to marry Yumi, aren't you? (William takes out a black box and Hiroki returns with a glass of water, she takes it)

William: I've already chosen the ring. (she drinks from the glass of water)

Mrs. Ishimaya: Go up to him.

William: Thank you, Mrs. Ishimaya. (he walks up the stairs to his bedroom, he knocks on the door, he slowly opens it, he walks in, Mr. Ishimaya wakes up) I'm sorry for waking you, but...

Mr. Ishimaya: I know why you've come. You've come to ask for my blessing to marry Yumi.

William: That is true. Due to the fathers of previous love interests being cruel, I was worried that you would disapprove of me dating your daughter.

Mr. Ishimaya: You and your friends saved Yumi. Who am I to complain? I give you my blessing. Go, propose to her and make her happy. If I live to see it, I'll be present at your wedding.

William: Thank you, Mr. Ishimaya, or should I say, my future father in law. (Mr. Ishimaya smiles)

Later that evening, I had taken Yumi out for a romantic dinner for two, and after I handed the server my credit card to pay the bill, I proposed to her.

William: Yumi... (he drops to his knee) You're the love of my life. My princess, my queen, you mean everything to me. My dear sweet Yumi... (he pulls out a black box, revealing a silver ring with a band of five pearls on it) Will you marry me?

Yumi: Oh yes, William. Yes, I will! (she puts the ring on, and kisses him)

From then on, things continued to get better. Basically, happy ever after for us. As for the others, Odd is still single and flirting with other ladies. He's even flirting with Sissi. I can't tell you how that could end. Ulrich is still single, yet an amazing soccer player, like he always wanted to be. Aelita and Jeremie were happily married, and Anais and Maithas were married and even expecting a child together. Mrs. Fritz and Priscilla were eventually released from prison, but still hated and disliked by many people. To be honest, I never thought I'd get this far. After Yumi was captured, I thought it would be the end for me, but it wasn't.

(William is shown in a wedding tuxedo at the altar, he looks at the audience, seeing Odd, Jeremie, Anais, Maithas and several other former classmates, he looks to the side and sees his best man Sammy and the priest before looking at the audience again)

I could have sworn I saw Ulrich, lurking in the back of the church, but I didn't think he would come. Or was it just a mirage caused by my nerves?

Sammy: Congratulations, my man.

William: Thanks Sammy.

(Mr. and Mrs. Ishimaya are shown on the left side of the aisle, and the music (Mendelssohn Wedding March) starts playing, the bridesmaids walk through, followed by Hiroki, the ring bearer, followed by Aelita, the matron of honor, Yumi is in a black ballroom wedding dress, walking down the aisle with only a bouquet of black roses in her hands, the music stops as she reaches the altar)

Priest: Dearly beloved, we are all gathered here today, in this holy place, to join these two souls, this man and this woman, in holy matrimony.

If you learned nothing from this story, just remember this; The next time you think of giving up, don't give in. You'll find a way to pull through it all, like I did.

Priest: You may kiss the bride.

(William kisses Yumi, the crowd cheers and claps)

Persistence always pays off in the end. Always.


End file.
